The rules for survival
by Tinnis
Summary: Having lived 10 years in Soul Society lacking memories of their past life Ichigo, Orihime, Chad and Ishida find themselves as students at the shinigami academy. Waiting for them is unexpected meetings and new friendships. But what is that dark voice hiding inside of Ichigo? And how will people that once knew them react to seeing them? Ten years can change a person. IchiNel UlquHime
1. Proluge: to die

Proluge: to die

**Disclaimer: This belongs to Kubo Tite. I only own this fanfictions plot.**

**A/N: This is the first fanfiction I've put up on the Internet, so I hope you will like it! Now I'm not going to talk anymore, I don't want to stop you from reading. **

* * *

_At Tatsukis place_

"Keigo, what the hell are you doing in my house", Tatsuki said in an annoyed voice.

"We're havin' a party", Keigo said, "and those FOUR are not invited", he finished with a snicker. Everyone knew what and who he was talking about and why. They had all learned a bit about the world of shinigamis and soul society when they almost died at the hands of Aizen.

"I know you hate them leaving you out, but it's just you, Mizurio and me", Tatsuki retorted with a snort. "That's not really a party." She also felt left out sometimes. Orihime was her best friend after all. She also knew that it wasn't really Orihimes fault and that it was one part of her life Orihime could never share with her.

"True Asano-san", Mizurio said in his usual voice and infuriating Keigo with his formal words. When Mizurio felt bad he only needed to bully Keigo to feel better. If Keigo felt bad, he wasn't the only one to feel down and, well, it was fun. Mizurio thought that he might as well pass time doing something he enjoyed.

"Huh", Keigo snorted but otherwise ignored the comments. Instead he turned on the TV.

"Today a sad accident occurred in Karakura town", the reporter from the news said, which caught the three persons attention.

"An accident in Karakura town", Tatsuki said. "I hope nobody we knew was affected."

"You mean you hope nobody died," Keigo said, trying to joke. This time though his happy face didn't really come through, he was also worried.

"Shh", Mizurio said, he wanted to listen.

"It was a car accident", the reporter continued, "with quite a few injured and even four deaths. It's the most serious accident we have seen in Karakura town for quite a while." The room just became more and more silent and the atmosphere just more and more tense. They were all wondering the same thing, what if somebody they knew had died.

"The dead people are as following: Kurosaki Ichigo, Inoue Orihime, Ishida Uruyu and Sado Yastora", the reporter continued, hitting them all with the hardest blow and sinking the room into depths of silence.

"How could those four die", Tatsuki whispered into the shocked silence, with tears dripping down her face.

"Yes they", Keigo continued after her, his shock painted clearly on his face. "They are the ones who are supposed to be abnormally strong", he exclaimed, anger apparent in his voice. "How could they die in a car crash when they defeated a damn monster." Keigo felt his emotion overflowing, his best friends had died and to let it out he became angry.

"Their souls are strong", Mizurio said, trying to calm himself down by explaining why it was possible. His voice sounded a bit calmer than the others, he usually did not show much emotions, but he was still very shocked. His voice succeeded to calm Keigo down at least and the silence engulfed them again. With no one knowing what to say it continued until the silence felt unbearable.

"I guess they went to Soul Society", Tatsuki said in a very sad voice. Oh, god how she would miss Orihime and Ichigo ... Oh Ichigo. She had known him since they were kids. Gosh, she thought as her tears started dripping again. She would miss them all.

"Yeah", Keigo murmured. "I wonder if they'll all become real shinigamis now", he continued, plastering on a fake smile and finishing with a throaty laugh. He would keep up his happy front even when his friends had died, especially then. Once more the room became quite, no one knowing what to say.

The door burst open and in ran a crying and drenched Chizuru. "Tatsuki", she screamd. "Orihime..." She didn't come any further, her voice faltered when mentioning the name of the woman she really cared about. With tears streaming down her face, she looked at Tatsuki as if she was the only one left on earth. Chizuru was not very close to either Chad, Ichigo or Ishida, but they were still her friends and she was just as shocked as the other three. She had been with them when they almost died by the hands of Aizen.

"I know", Tatsuki said, this time she actually pitied the woman. It was obvious to Tatsuki that Chizuru had ran here as fast as she could, she hadn't even bothered to take a raincoat to protect herself from the pouring rain.

She and Chizuru had a special kind of bond, most times enemies, but still friends or at least friends of Orihime. Tatsuki looked at Chizuru and realized, that even if she was upset, she was many times better at controlling it than Chizuru. So she smiled, put up a cool front and decided to calm herself and the others down at the same time.

"They'll probably go to soul society now", she said. "With their reiatsu, they'll probably become famous shinigamis, and we might meet them when we die."

Everyone let Tatsukis words sink in and somehow they felt a little bit calmer. They still continued with what they where doing before, but the atmosphere where a bit lighter. Chizuro was crying, Keigo was playing happy, Mizurio was spacing out and Tatsuki was calming herself down and fighting to keep up a happy expression. She was not like Mizurio, she wan't used to hide how she felt.

* * *

_At the Kurosaki clinic_

The news of the four deaths were also displayed at the TV in the Kurosaki clinic, which was owned by the family of Kurosaki Ichigo, one of the victims of the car crash. Karin and Yuzu, the one currently watching TV, were spacing out and the room was covered in shocked silence.

"Yuzu, Karin", in came their singing farther. He was as dense as always and didn't notice the way his daughters were acting. With his sound the silence were broken and Yuzu and Karin woke up from their shocked state.

"Whhhaaa", Yuzu started crying and she was not just crying a little bit. The tears were pouring down, as fast as her eyes could possibly produce them. Together with her heart wrenching cries, came her wailing screams. "Onii-chan."

Karin would not cry, she had sworn to herself not to cry whatever happened. She would be stronger than she was when her mother died - no she was already stronger, she thought. So instead of breaking down she started to comfort her sister, comforting herself at the same time. All of it happened in a second, not giving their father Isshin enough time to react and when he did it was an over the top reaction as always with him.

"Yuzu", he started screaming. "What's wrong my Yuzu. My Yuzu darling speak to me." Running his fastest, he was in front of Yuzu in seconds and started shaking her at the same time as screaming at the top of his lungs.

"Calm down you ol' beardy", Karin screamed as a reaction to her fathers stupid reaction. At the same time she put out her fist, hitting him in the face. She had long since learned that the only way of stopping her father was with her fists.

"Karin", her father said sounding injured, but he was interrupted by her. "Ichi-nii, Ichi-nii", she said sounding desperate. "Ichi-nii is dead." First she couldn't get it out, but when she finally succeeded it sounded way to matter of fact, as if she didn't care.

"Ichigo", Isshin said sounding shocked. "Who could possibly kill Ichigo?"

"Not killed, you idiot", Karin scowled once again surprised at her fathers level of denseness. "He, Inoue, Chad and Ishida died in a car crash. Not in a battle, so it wasn't their souls that died. It was there bodies, you dense fool."

"Their bodies", Isshin said stupefied and at the same time Karin realized what she just said. "Calm down Yuzu", she told her sister at the same time as she gave her father a death glare. How freaking dense could he be, she thought. Sometimes she wondered if any of them actually were related to him. At the same time as killing her father with her glares she continued to calm her sister. "See their souls still exist, just in Soul Society instead. I'm sure we'll all meet them again." How they were going to meet was something she forgot to mention though.

With Karins speech Yuzus crying was reduced to a mere sobbing and it seemed to give her father enough time to recover from his shock. "I never saw this coming", he murmured to himself, but not silent enough that it escaped Karins hearing. With those words she got the feeling that something was wrong, something other than her brothers death. Before she could ask him though, he pulled himself together and acted as his usual stupid self.

"See Yuzu, it's nothing to get worried about", he said in his usual loud and annoying voice. "You have your daddy here and that's all that matters", he continued with an attempt to make his voice sweet, at the same time as pulling Yuzu into a giant hug. He tried to get Karin into it, but instead he got a fist in the face again.

Instead of screaming at her dad as she usually would, she continued to comfort Yuzu. "We'll probably meet again anyway", Karin said. When she looked at Yuzus face she added, "before we die". That caught Yuzus attention and she looked up at Karin, confusion clear in her face. "How", she murmured in between hugging her father and taking comfort from his closeness.

"I mean all four of them has pretty high reiatsu right", Karin said slowly so she had time to gather her thought, she did not want to say something wrong. She was just speculating. "And doesn't souls with high spiritual power become shinigamis? If they did, they would become pretty powerful and it wouldn't be weird if they could come and meet us."

"I mean, I meat Toshiro sometimes", she continued when Yuzu didn't respond to her, before she had time to think it through. When she realized what she just said, a light pink color invaded her face. How the hell could she blush about **him**, she thought. Her brother had just died damn it.

"You're right", Yuzu said and pulled herself out of her misery. What she didn't notice though, was that she interrupted her father from finding out what karin had meant about the Toshiro comment. Which of course made Karin eternally grateful. Karin felt even more grateful when Yuzu said she needed to go to the kitchen to prepare food and she could use that as an excuse to get away.

"I'll go with Yuzu", she said in a hurried voice. "I know so little about cooking, it can't hurt", she continued with a faltering smile. Her excuse had been way to bad. Her father should be able to sense it for what it was, but he just smiled and nodded. "It wouldn't hurt for my little girl to learn more about being a woman," he said and laughed.

Instead of hitting her father, which she really felt like, she hurried after her sister to the kitchen. She would take this opportunity of getting away before he changed his mind.

Kurosaki Isshin looked after his daughters when they walked towards the kitchen. His son had just died and it was still pretty normal. He thought it was amazing, his daughters were so strong. That thought almost brought out a bunch of big tears from his eyes, but it was no point in being dramatic if nobody was watching.

He also knew the reason why things were so ordinary, the hope of meeting their brother again strengthened them. He didn't have anything against that, he just hoped he was going to be able to keep this one bit of information from his daughters. When somebody died they lost their memories and it was very rare for a soul to get its memories back from when it was a living person.

Then it hit him. What had Karin just implied about Toshiro? He had been so concentrated about keeping that piece of information from his smart daughters that he hadn't realized it until now. Now he also understood why she had wanted to go to the kitchen, even though she hated cocking. "Karin", he screamed running to them, with giant tears dropping down his face. His daughters where so damn grown up.

* * *

_At the Karakura general hospital_

In the owners room at Karakuras biggest hospital the TV was also on, showing the same thing as in the previous locations. The man looking at it was Ishidas father Ishida Ryugen, the owner of the hospital.

Ishidas father was looking at the TV, listening to the news which told him his son was dead. Instead of breaking down in tears, which a normal person might have done, he shook his head and uttered two words. "That fool", he said in his usual emotionless voice. It was not Ryugens style to start crying, it was not his style to be affected by anything. Not emotionally anyway.

Sitting there he let out one of his rare smiles. "It should be interesting to see what he will do now", he murmured to himself. "What if he becomes a shinigami?" Ryugen also knew what Ichigos father Isshin knew, that when somebody died they lost all their memories from their life. It should be interesting, he thought as he rose from his seat. He had work to do.

What Ryugen never would admit to even himself though, was that he would miss that idiot of a son. He would miss him, but he had a knowledge most people did not. He knew that everything did not end after you died. He also knew what happened to someone when they died and he was sure of it since it was not just vague speculations. He would miss his son, yes that was true. Just as much as that though he would look forward to see what his son would do as dead. He was fairly sure that with his sons reiatsu, his son would not be able to live the life of a ordinary soul.

* * *

_At Urahara Shoten_

"Did you hear this, my dear", Urahara called out into the empty air.

"Hear what", a rough woman's voice answered, namely Yoruchi.

In front of Urahara a black cat appeared. "Did I hear what, Kisuke", Yoruchi asked again, annoyed that Urahara had not answered her the first time. She knew he probably meant to annoy her, but she was not a patient woman.

"Ah nothing", Urahara said at the same time tapping his fan to his chin. "With your answer I think it's quite obvious that you did not hear it", he continued in his very cryptic way, fighting a smile from appearing on his face. He liked annoying people and Yoruchi was one of the persons he enjoyed to annoy the most.

"Oh", Yoruchi said. "If that's the game you wanna play." And just like that she transformed into her human body, as always looking like the day she was born. Translation: she was totally naked, without a single garment decorating her body. With her very appealing body, she leaned forward towards Urahara until her mouth was right in front of his ear. "Kisuke", she whispered into his ear in a husky tone. Before he had time to react she opened her mouth and bit his ear.

"Yoruchi", he said in a calculating tone. "Is that meant to scare me?" Before she had time to answer though, he continued, in a somewhat more ordinary voice. "I did plan to tell you anyway, this is way to interesting not to tell you." With those words Yoruchi jumped off him and just as she was about to transform herself back into a cat Urahara continued speaking. "And don't transform back into a cat, it's hard to talk to you seriously then."

"Tch", Yourchi scowled but instead of transforming back, she walked back into the store to get a set of clothes. She came back wearing her usual get up. A black top with an orange jacket over and a tight pair of black pants. "So", she said, getting used to her human shape. "What was it you wanted to talk about? And give me some food, I'm freaking starving from all the stupid cat food."

Urahara avoided saying that if she didn't want cat food, she shouldn't go around looking like a cat. Instead he started to explain what he was talking about. "Did you hear that Ichigo, Inoue, Ishida and Chad died", he said with a light smile playing on his lips.

"They what", Yoruchi screamed. "Who the hell could kill them, and what are we gonna do about it?" After her scream she realized that he was smiling and it calmed her down on the spot . If it was anything as serious as it sounded he should have told her without teasing her and going through all that complicated stuff. "Can you explain what you mean", she said in a much calmer voice, but also in a hell lot more annoyed tone. When you socialized with Urahara you should expect to get annoyed.

"Well they did die", he said in a cryptic tone. When he saw Yoruchi's look he quickly continued. "Well their bodies did anyway."

"What", Yoruchi said. She sure as hell wasn't expecting this. "So you mean they are going to Soul Society", she continued when she realized what he actually was saying. When she finished talking she let out a wicked grin. A grin that would make people run for their lives.

"Exactly", Urahara said and let go of his fan to show her his matching grin, it was just as wicked.

"I was just starting to get bored", Yoruchi said. "With Aizen dead and all. But this should be fun." Then she realized something important. "You know it could take many years before they make an appearance, if they ever do."

"I think it's unavoidable that they'll appear, with that massive reiatsu they have", Urahara said, of this he was totally certain. "And even if it does take time, I'm used to wait. I mean we waited 100 damn years to get back at Aizen and give him what he deserved."

"True", she answered. "But I still can't wait", she finished with a laugh.

* * *

_At Karakura 1st high school_

The shocking news reached quite a few people in Karakura town, the four were quite well known. The next day in school a mourning period wear held, the only time the school was completely quiet. In the silence the students and teachers wear supposed to think about the four dead and mourn them. For the people in school who had been close to them, you could make an appointment with a special consoler, to talk about how you felt. It was not an ordinary occasion to have four students die, and the school wanted to make sure that it left as little trace as possible on the students.

In the class 4-3, which Ichigo and his three friends had been going to, the entire day was used as a 'feel free to talk about you feelings' kind of day. The class was even allowed to quit an hour earlier. The entire class was mourning the four dead persons, since they had kind of been the center of the class. Unintentionally of course.

In other parts of town funerals wear planned and it was decided to bury the four persons side by side since they had both died together and fought together in their life. All parties involved had agreed and thought it would be proper since they would probably be comrades in their afterlife as well. It was their relatives and friends, those who knew about Soul Society, way to wish them a happy relationship in death.

The town got used to being without those four though and soon got back to it's ordinary life. Their closest friends took quite a while to mourn, even though they knew where they had gone, but their lives soon returned to ordinary as well. It was a busy time for people in their class, with starting collage, last year of high school and all.

* * *

_At the car accident_

We now go back a bit in time and take a look on what happened right after the car accident. What we see is four persons standing, more like floating, over a bunch of smashed cars, basically in the middle of the car crash. Rain was smattering down, but it passed right through their bodies.

Ichigo looked around himself feeling slightly dizzy, as if he was forgetting something important and that something else was really wrong. What first caught his attention though was the three persons close to him. They where his comrades, that he was totally certain of, even though he couldn't recall much else.

He continued to look around himself and when he looked down he got truly surprised. He saw a car, that was truly broken, but the weird thing was it contained four bodies. These four bodies just happened to look exactly like him and his comrades, just with a bunch of blood covering them. That's when it hit him and he realized why something felt so wrong. He was hovering in the air, with rain passing through him, looking down on his own body that just happened to be covered in blood. There existed only one possible explanation. He was dead. He and his friends were fucking dead.

He looked up to meet his friends eyes and saw that they had realized the same thing. Their moods started to sink when they had realized this fact and the silence just got more and more akward. So just to break the silence Ichigo opened his mouth, before thinking what he was going to say.

"So, I guess we're dead", slipped out of his mouth and if his friends hadn't been looking at him he would have face palmed. How the hell could he have said something so stupid. Remarking the obvious wouldn't make the tense mood go away. His trademark scowl just became more and more annoyed and angry, not that it really was a big difference from how he normally looked.

"True", Orihime said with a small smile on her lips. "So what happens know? I mean it's quite obvious that something should happen otherwise we wouldn't really be here. I never believed the story that when you die everything goes dark. I always preferred believing that when you died you where abducted by space alien who took you out to outer space, where you would fight a battle for mankinds survival." Orihimes voice got more and more excited as she continued her ramble, she was totally lost in her own little world.

Ichigo had tried answering her question in the beginning, but when she just continued he decided to wait. I mean it's almost impossible to wake Orihime up from her fantasy world before she was finished imagining whatever she was imagining.

It was weird like that. Ichigo could remember all about how his friends acted and what kind of person they where, but he could not remember a single instant of time they had actually spent together. It was as if his memories where covered in thick clouds and impossible to reach. Another example of it was when Orihime asked what happened after death. He felt as if he should know the answer, but when he finally thought he had it, it just slipped away.

"Orihime, Orihime, Orihime", Chad and Uryuu said together waking up both Ichigo and Orihime from their daydreaming. When they saw that they had both Orihimes and Ichigos attention Uryru continued. "Your right Orihime, so what do we do know? I don't know about you but I feel like I have something I need to do. But it's just slipping away from me, the same way as everything else is." He finished with a bitter expression on his face.

"Yeah", the three other whispered together dampening the mood again. "I feel like there's something I gotta do", Orihime continued in a whisper, her voice sounding as if she was on verge to break down crying, "before I pass on." The others could only nod and agree with her words.

But in truth they where lost. Just as it felt as if the silence and their knowledge of how little they actually knew was gonna strangle them, a strange man appeared. The man wore a strange black kimono and a sword at his hip. He had a big afro on his head, and the only word to describe his appearance was average. At least if you wanted to be polite.

The strange thing about him though was that he had jumped down from the roof of a two floor house without looking bothered at all. He also just happened to be walking towards them in the air, like without touching the ground.

"So these four has died", the man murmured to himself. "This could be trouble, I better send them on quickly."

"Af-san", Ichigo said to the man when he saw him, without actually knowing why. "Do I know you Af-san, or did I know you?" Why had he called him Af-san, Ichigo thought. Maybe this man had answers to what they should do know.

So they have forgotten already, the man thought. Well he had heard that the people with high reiatsu forgot about their lives faster than others, since it was a higher chance that they had a relative with high reiatsu as well and thus they might be able to say goodbye to them. The dead are not allowed to say goodbye to the living though. Well I better send them of fast, of something got wrong I would not be able to handle it, he admitted to himself. Even if they had forgotten, he knew what they were capable of.

"I don't know about that", he responded to Ichigo, his thought progress had only taken a few seconds."But that is not necessary. I'm a shinigami and it is my duty to send you on to your next destination, Soul Society." He would usually go down in a more detailed explanation, but he did not want to trigger any of their memories. Shit, he was not used to this kind of pressure. He could do it, he could do it, he tried convincing himself.

"Soul Society", Ishida nodded in acceptance at the same time as feeling a strange recognition. Had he heard that name before and why did the word shinigami make him strangely annoyed and a little mad.

Chad was just silent as normal, but gave a short nod. Anything had to be better than staying here, not knowing what to do and looking down at your own dead body.

Inoue felt that she should ask what kind of place Soul Society was, what if it was like hell, but she had the strange feeling that it was kind of nice. Or was supposed to be anyway. She also felt like she had a really good friend in Soul Society, a friend she had gone through hell with basically. But where the living supposed to know about Soul Society.

"But I have something I really need to do", Ichigo murmured. It really bothered him, because he couldn't remember what. He knew there were something he needed to do, something he had to do and just for a second he saw to before him. Two pretty small girls on with black hair and a boyish style and one with brown hair and waring a cute dress. They were both looking lost and somehow he new what he had to do had something to do with them. Then it just vanished, the pictures, the remembrance. It all vanished and he felt like he was trying to catch straws.

The man they called Af-san didn't want to wait though, he was gonna send them on now. He really didn't care if he had to be rough and he thought his superiors would understand. He brought out his sword and was prepared for whatever reaction that would bring in the four people. But there was no fear, no jumping in fright, no screaming what the hell he thought he was doing with a sword. That was the usual reactions from a soul. But he guessed that their battle instincts where still left, since the only thing they where doing where watching him carefully.

As the man he thought of as Af-san prepared to bring the shaft of his sword down on Ichigo a thought hit Ichigo, or more like an instinct. "Grab my hand." It came out like a half scream and at first his friends looked at him in surprise. Af-san though, he was afraid something was wrong and hurried up. Sadly, or sadly for him, he didn't have enough time to bring his sword down on Ichigo before Inoue grabbed his hand.

Damn, this was not good", he thought. It wasn't a disaster, but it wasn't exactly good either. At the same time as Ichigo started to vanish, the soul burial didn't take long time, Ishida grabbed Inoues hand and Chad Ishidas. Well he didn't have much of a choice, he thought. So he just continued what he was doing, even faster then before. After this he would need a huge break to relax his nerves, he thought. Well maybe with their leaving Karakura town would become a more ordinary place.

* * *

_In Soul Society_

When they opened their eyes again what they saw severely shocked them. They place they were in was filthy. That was basically the best word to describe it, filthy and looking like it would collapse any second. They where standing at a green field, maybe 20 times 20 meters. Around it were houses that looked like it was going to collapse any second. The field was wet, as if it had just rained, but it was not raining right now. The grass looked sad, and a bit withered, and right now half of the filed where covered in a sort of watery mud.

"So this is Soul Society", Ichigo murmured to himself, and the three people around him either didn't hear him or just decided to ignore him, since there was basically nothing to add.

"Why did you tell us to grab your hand", Ishida instead said in an annoyed tone, he was also pushing up his glasses like he always did when he were annoyed. If you looked closely you could also see that he had a faint blush on his face.

"Well, what if we hadn't come to the same place", Ichigo said, sounding surprised that he would have to explain it. "It was more instinct than anything really."

"Tch", Ishida responded to the stupid explanation. "I wished I didn't come to the same place as you."

Ishida and Ichigo continued their bickering as they, together with their two other friends walked around to see what kind of place they had landed in.

Without their knowledge they had landed in district nr. 80, the northern part, also called Zaraki. It was one of the four worst places to live in Soul Society.

* * *

**A/N: I hoped you liked the story so far and I'm probably going to update next weekend, maybe as early as Friday. I already have a few more chapters writen, so you guys don't have to worry about me stoping for quite a while! In the next chapter we will also see what happenes in the 80th district, Zaraki.**

**I would also love if somebody left a review and told me what they thought about mu story, since it's my first I would really like to know how I'm doing. ****^-^**I love constuctive criticism, but please no flames.  



	2. Chapter 1: to live in the 80th district

**I'm sorry that this chapter is a little bit late, I was going to upload it on Friday, but I had been home from school since I was sick and because of that I had some catching up to do. :( On Friday I and my friend were also going away and I just came home this Sunday so I couldn't upload it on Saturday. **

**I've tried to look through this text quite a couple of times, but there are some parts I'm not really sure about, like if it really seems as the 80th district. If it doesn't I would love if you gave me constructive criticism, but please don't just say 'it did not feel as the 80th district', or something since that gives me no idea of what I should change. **

**Another mistake you might find in the story is that I might have written Ishida or Inoue. I had not decided which names I should use before I wrote this chapter, I then later decided that i would use their first names and that they would forget the others, so I might have missed to change it at some part. I did not do so with Chad though, as Yastora would feel really wrong for me. Instead I used Chad which kinda like is his nickname. **

**Otherwise I hope you will enjoy this chapter, it's a little longer than last, and I would love if you left what you thought about it so I can write better chapters in the future.^-^Suggestions are also welcome and I might use them if they fit in with the plot I've already thought of.**

* * *

Time passes fast and without them noticing a week had already gone by. They had started to get used to their new lives of hardships and the term 'the strong survive'.

In the week that they had spent in there they had learned a bit about the place they had come to. They lived in Rugonkai, where all new souls lived, district 80th on the northern side, called Zaraki. The district were basically known for two things, one being totally brutal and two being the district where the captain Zaraki Kenpachi came from. Zaraki Kenpachi who was also known for the most brutal and fighting loving captain.

In the short time they had spent there they had also learned the rules of the district. Well it was basically a lawless zone, but the rules you needed to know to survive the harsh life there. If you owned something of worth, like their clothes from the living world, you needed to be able to fight if you wanted to keep it. Ichigo could still remember what had happened when they first arrived here.

* * *

_The four comrades where walking together trying to see what kind of place they were going to be living in. Uryuu and Ichigo had been walking in the front bickering with each other, Orihime and Chad walking a bit behind in silence. They had been walking like that, enjoying each others company, looking and wondering what this rundown place was. Was this really were they where going to live now. They didn't really have anything to compare it to, since they couldn't remember what they did when they where alive, but they where pretty sure that they had lived better in the living world. _

_They had apparently appeared in a place where nobody lived, but as they walked they started to see signs of people and that's when it happened. The incident that taught them the first lesson about how to survive in this hellhole of a place. 'Always be prepared for a fight.' _

_They only had time to take a few steps more before people started appearing and they did not look like they wanted to welcome them. There where only men and they where coming from all directions. They soon had our surprised friends surrounded. They all carried some kind of weapons, or something that could be used as it anyway. The most rare and dangerous where the metal rods and knives. The most usual and least dangerous where the wooden sticks. In between where the wooden swords and wooden rods. _

_"Give us your clothes", a muscular man right before the four said. He was one of the people carrying a metal rod and his appearance was quite intimidating. He was a muscular man, with short messy hair and a nasty looking scar across his chin. He wore an dirty cardigan that was open, and since he had nothing underneath he was showing his muscular chest and another long scar. This man was quite obviously the leader. _

_"Huh, are you deaf", he screamed when a silent minute passed. "Gimme your clothes I said. I ain't waiting much longer." The mans face started turning into an unnatural red color, he clearly had anger problems. _

_"Calm yourself", a tall and skinny man said to the leader. He had been standing right behind him the whole time, and he was the only one without a weapon. After seeing his leaders face returning to a more ordinary color he turned his face towards the surrounded four, showing a creepy smile. "I see that you do not understand the situation you are in right know, being new here and all. The simple facts is that clothes from the real world is valuable and we want them. If you do not give them to us, we are going to pound you silly, so you learn who to obey in the future." Through his whole speech he had been smiling, like he was explaining how to water a plant. Even though this man looked like the weakest in the group he also looked like the only one who had a brain. _

_"Like hell we are", Ichigo screamed back, enraged. Being threatened did not suit him well at all. _

_"Calm yourself Ichigo", Uryuu hissed back, but it was already to late. The leader was tired of waiting and did not let this opportunity pass by. "Attack", he roared and started to run against them with his metal rod. His friends followed immediately. _

_As of instinct our four friends reacted immediately, not wasting a second. Ichigo, Chad and Uryuu gathered around Orihime in a circular formation. Ready to take on any attack. _

_"I'm gonna fucking kill your guts", the leader screamed as he attacked Ichigo. Ichigo did not have time to panic, which he felt like, instead he reacted as his instinct told him. _

_Dodged the metal rod that was raised clumsily and ineffectively. Anger the man more to make him loose control over his thought process, thus making him easier to fight. "Are you to damn fat, to hit a skinny little boy like me. You must be growing old Granny." When target is enraged, use your speed to come behind him and hit him in the head. Thus the man fell and all feeling of panic vanished from Ichigo. He felt like he had done this before and he only needed to trust what his instincts told him to do.  
_

_He looked around himself and saw how his two male friends fought the same way as him, as if they had done it before. All three of them had that instinct, the instinct called fighting. Maybe they had been fighters in their past lives, because their skills where clearly superior to this mob of enraged men. The only problem was their enemies numbers though, and that they themselves had to protect somebody. These people would not touche a hair on Orihime's body. _

_The only reason that they managed to hold their grounds against such superior numbers was their instincts, it seemed like their bodies had the way of fighting beaten into them. It had already become a reflex. Still with that many people against one, it was unavoidable for their formation to get broken. It was just a question of time. _

_Instead of dodging they sometime took the hits right on, to avoid leaving Orihime open and because of that they were soon breathing heavy and covered in blood. Both that of their own and their enemies of course. The enemies out numbered them, they had weapons and didn't need to think about protecting anybody. The odds where heavily against the four friends. They could only stall for time. _

_"Ichigo, Uryuu, Chad", Orihime wailed. Why was she a burden, she thought. Somehow she knew that she had always been a burden. Tears streaming down her face, to see them get hurt also hurt her. She was crying and shaking, in a far worse emotional state then her friends. She saw how they fought and took hits to avoid it from hitting her. Was she really that much of a burden? The thought of being a burden hurt her more than any other. _

_The first man to leave the circle was Uryuu. She saw how he was forced out, it didn't look like close fighting was something for him. Uryuu was still fighting but, it was going worse. He was being attacked from all sides and took more and more hits. He would not last long. _

_She saw how Ichigo and Chad tried to cover for her, but it was even harder now with one less person. Just as Ichigo was dodging a wodden stick and Chad punching a man in the face, another man snuck up behind her. He put the knife against her throat and screamed victoriously. _

_"Stop fighting or we'll kill this bitch", he growled before looking down at his victim, Orihime. "You've gotta a killer body, woman. So don't worry, you don't need to die, only give us your clothes." He started dragging her shirt of at the same time as leering at her. "Why don't you give us a look." When he couldn't get her shirt of, he sliced it up with his knife, taking her bra down at the same time. "Ohh", he exclaimed and gave her a wink. She tried to cover herself with her arms at the same time as she started to scream. She knew she was panicking, but what the hell was she supposed to do, not only was she being being molested, her friends were hurting because of her. _

_Ichigo couldn't take anymore of this, his friend was getting molested damn it. So he attacked the man closest to him again, even though he knew that they would just threaten him again. He just couldn't watch though, anything was better than just watching. _

_When Ichigo attacked he brought the attention back to him and his two male friends. "Don't move", the man put his knife back against Orihime's throat, cutting a tiny bit into her skin. Just enough to make it drip of blood. He was no longer looking at her bare chest though, so Ichigo felt as if he had accomplished something even though he had only stalled for time. _

_Ichigo saw how the man he had attacked prepared to kick him, but he wouldn't avoid it. He couldn't if he wanted to keep Orihime safe. The man kicked his feet and made him fall to the ground, but it didn't stop there. He continued kick Ichigo, in the stomach, in the ribs, any place but the head and between his legs. He tried to keep himself from screaming, but the man just continued and then it hurt, hurt, so much he could no longer stop himself. He screamed._

_"Now it's your turn", the man closest to Uryuu said with a smile. "This should teach you to not mess with us."_

_Orihime saw all this, knew that it happened because they wanted to protect her. Knew it was her fault. When Ichigo screamed she felt like a knife was cutting her open. Then a man started approaching Uryuu with a wicked smile and she just couldn't take it anymore. _

_She was against violence, so much against it that she felt like she hurt herself when she hurt others, but this was hurting her far worse than anything else possible could. The knowledge that her friends would die because of her incapability. So finally her instinct kicked in and she elbowed the man behind her straight in the face, causing him to drop his knife and stutter back. She finished him with a harsh kick, between his legs. She would hold no mercy towards the ones who hurt her friends. No mercy at all. _

_Everyone stared at her, as if she had grown horns. Her friends where the first to react though, and somehow they managed to get together, once more in a circular formation. This time though there was no one inside of it, no one getting protected. They where only four comrades, fighting together. Fighting for their survival and their rights. _

_Somehow they had managed to survive that encounter. Four friends fighting besides each other on equal terms. Orihime had fought with them the whole time and told them that the next time they came in a fight she would fight with them as well. They all suspected that they would have plenty of fights in their new life, whether they wanted it or not. They had all guessed at what kind of place they had arrived in. But they had survived and they would survive in the future as well. They had each other and that was all that mattered._

_After the fight they had gotten quite a few injures and would probably not be capable of fighting again for quite a while. So somehow they had walked back, out to the empty place were they had arrived. No one lived there, thus no one could bother them. They had found a hut, that was at least a little bit intact and they took shelter there. Trying to patch up each others wounds the best they could._

* * *

A week had now passed and they had learned their lesson, if you had something that was considered just a little bit valuable, you better be able to fight for it. They had also learned something else, in Soul Society you where supposed to get thirsty, but not hungry. It wasn't correct. At least not for them. They had felt how they just got hungrier and hungrier, especially after such an energy consuming fight. They had heard something strange, that people with special powers got hungry, but they didn't really speculate more on that. They needed food and that was a fact.

"Ichigo we need to go back and get more food", Uryuu said. "Water as well. This won't work, we are all starving."

"Yeah", Ichigo agreed with Uryuu, he could feel his stomach grumbling. He had gotten the worst injuries in the fight a week ago, and had been forced to stay in this hut the entire time. Orihime had stayed with him the whole time, both because he would not be able to defend himself, plus she was apparently best at taking care of wounds. Uryuu and Chad had together wandered in to the center of the district, a lot more carefully than the other time, and they had managed to steal some water and a little bit of food. They had made the trip three times now. They had not managed to avoid fights though, even though they had started to dress as other people in this district.

"I think I'm well enough to move by now", Ichigo continued. His body still hurt, but he would not be a liability. "I think we need to find another place to live in as well, I have seen to many people around here to feel comfortable."

"But Ichigo", Orihime said in a worried tone. "You shouldn't really move around, your body is still not perfectly healthy. You and Chad shouldn't either, Uryuu." She directed her gaze at Uryuu and Chad and shuddered when she saw their wounds as well.

"It's no problem", Chad said in his ordinary voice. He had the most enduring body and could take a lot of hits without going down, plus he was literally huge. He had the most pure strength. Uryuu and Ichigo where more fast, and Uryuu had discovered that he had an incredible accurate throwing. Orihime though, she was neither as fast as Ichigo and Ishida or as strong as Chad, but she looked the least dangerous and could use that as a weapon. If your enemy where not prepared for your attack you had a higher success rate of hitting.

"Well let's go", Uryuu said. "And before we go, you and Inoue need to change your clothes. It seems as if clothes from the living word is way to valuable, we want to keep a low profile and not be dragged into fights. Otherwise we'll never manage to steel anything and we might gain unnecessary wounds."

"Okay", Orihime said and started with taking of her rain jacket. They had all had a rain jacket with them from the living world, and had soon realized how valuable it was. It could keep the rain away really well. She then started tugging at her top.

"Orihime", Uryuu said in a scandalous voice. "You can not change in the same room as us."

Orihime looked around as if she saw nothing wrong with it, then her eyes fell on the three boys faces, that had all become light pink. "Right", she said. "I'll go and change in another room, I don't want you to get embarrassed. You can call me when you are finished changing." She almost danced out of the room, humming a beautiful tone. She was happy that Ichigo seemed a lot better now.

"Is that how a girl is supposed to react", Uryuu muttered.

"No", Chad answered, with just one word and straight to the point as always. Chad was not one for talking.

"No she is the one who should have been embarrassed", Ichigo said in a harsh tone. His face was once more under control and his scowl was back, stronger than before. "But since we don't have any memories to compare to, maybe we're wrong."

"Well let's change", Chad said more to Ichigo than anyone. He and Uryuu already wore clothes from here, they had gotten clothes to everyone the first time they went in for stealing, thinking it would be easier if they blended in, which was correct of course. They only had to take their jackets of.

Ichigo changed into the clothes at recored speed, feeling his face getting hot just thinking about Orihime coming in and seeing him half naked. Shit he had to get his emotions under control. What he didn't know was that his slight fever where making him much more agitated and easier to annoy.

They finished changing fast and packing their clothes from the living world into a bundle, with a dirty cloth around them. It made it both easy to carry and no one could see what was inside, so no one would think it valuable. Then they went out to get food and water, they needed to survive.

Uryuu took the lead and the way they where walking where mostly through dark and disgusting alleyways. When they met people, they changed their postures severely. Instead of walking straight up, they bend their backs, so they would look tired, they changed their pace a lot as well and their expressions. Instead of their usual facial expression they looked hopeless, lost, as if they would kick the wall any second. Their faces looked like life was not worth living.

In that kind of way they managed to get into the more populated parts of their district. It didn't take Uryuu long to stop the group now.

"You see the man there", he said and pointed. "He is trying to sell apples, and we are getting some."

"How", Ichigo and Orihime said together. Chad who had already went with Uryuu had gotten used to his method.

"I've got the plan", he answered smiling wickedly and pushing his glasses up. He was really lucky to still have his glasses intact.

* * *

When they all where in position, Orihime started walking towards the man, looking innocent, scared and hungry. "I wanna buy some apples", she said in a weak voice.

"Do you got money", the man hissed taking in her appearance. "If you ain't you can always pay me with your body", he leered staring at her body.

Uryuu, who's turn it was next, did not want to wait any longer. He could not stand seeing Orihime, or any of his friends, get talked to like that. He took up the small stones he had in his pocket and started to throw them at the man. Some hit the man, other his apples.

The action enraged the man and he turned his focus away from Orihime to look for the guilty person. He could not find Uryuu though since Uryuu was well hid. When the man looked away, Inoue took two apples and stuffed them in her pocket and started walking away.

The man soon gave up and when he saw Orihime, who he had hoped to get his way with, waling away with a bulging pockets. It did not take him long to realized with she had done. "Bitch", he screamed. "Gimme the apples, and I might not kill ya." He started running after her, surprisingly fast.

Ichigo saw the man leaving to hunt after Orihime and instead of helping her, which he felt like doing, he continued with the plan. Which was to steal a dozen apples now that he had the opportunity and the man was gone. He just hoped that Uryuu knew what he was doing and would not put Orihime in unnecessary danger. She would be insulted if she knew that he thought she needed protection though.

Ichigo finished taking the apples fast and turned around running towards their meeting place, if something went wrong he wanted to be able to help. He felt his breath catching in his throat, how it made it hard to breath. His wounds hurt from his physical exertion, but he had a feeling something would go wrong. This was also his first time participating in anything like stealing, he had a feeling that he had never done it in his past life. He also had this feeling of needing to protect Orihime, he couldn't let her get hurt, because their was someone that would never forgive him if he did.

Orihime felt her breath getting heavy and her legs stated to feel like lead, she ran at her fastest and wouldn't be able to keep it up for much longer. The man behind her was not running as fast, but at a more steady tempo and she knew that he would be able to run for a longer time then her. He would catch up to her, it was only a matter of time. More and more men had also started to gather behind him, not wanting to miss out on a opportunity of hunting a beautiful woman like her and they did not have anything better to do anyway. The district she and her friends had come to was just filled with bastards like that.

She heard the rough words they where screaming after her, and knew that if they caught her, they would not hold back against her. Just a little bit farther, she thought. Chad would be just ahead.

They where now just a few meters behind her and she made a quick turn into a filthy alley. She saw Uryuu motion for her into one of the houses, he had already prepared for an escape way for her. They did not want fight more than necessary and if the men saw Orihime it would definitely become an all out brawl.

When the men turned into the alley, a few second later, all the saw was a huge man, holding a metal rod and looking bored. Chad had been placed there to scar away any further pursuit. The men would probably not think it was worth getting hurt for one woman, especially not when they could not even see the woman.

"What do you want", Chad said even slower than usual and in a much more threatening and low voice then ordinary.

"You haven't seen a filthy thief of a woman pass by", the apple owner said in a low voice, apparently scared by Chads appearance. Chad lifted his head looking the man right in the eyes and sending him stuttering back quite a few steps.

"I haven't seen nobody", he answered in the same voice. "Now scram, I was peacefully sleeping and want to continue doing that." He hefted his metal rod, showing that if they wanted they had a fight. The men who had only come to see a beautiful woman went away, their interest lost, if they wanted a fight they would pick one of their own size, or someone smaller, and somebody without a weapon. Soon it was only the apple owner left.

"I know you hid that whore somewhere. Gimme me my apples." A second after the word whore was out of the mans mouth Chad punched him in his stomach, not his hardest, but hard enough to make the man stumble back, trying to catch his breath.

"Don't say that", Chad hissed in a low voice sounding even more dangerous than before. He would not tolerate someone talking like that about his friend. That was two much for the man, he would not talk to this man, he didn't seem freaking sane. Abandoning his pride and two mere apples weren't that hard, so he just ran.

When the group met up in the designated place Orihime could no longer keep herself from laughter. She laughed so hard that she could no longer stand up, not seeming to care about how dirty and disgusting the street underneath her was.

"Huh, huh", she huffed after breath, trying to stop her laughing while her three male friends stared at her. "What's wrong", she managed to get out through her panting.

"Um, our friend just fell down on the street laughing so hard that she couldn't breath", Uryuu answered in a voice that held a tint of sarcasm. A tone he otherwise only used towards Ichigo. "We though have no idea of why she is laughing, since we can not find anything funny in a disgusting alley in a god forsaken city. That's all Orihime."

"Haha", she answered Uryuu's little speech with even more laughter, but under her friends intense stares she managed to calm down. "Well, you should have seen Chad", she said as if that should explain everything. When she saw her friends empty stares and Chad's injured she realized that she had to explain it further. "I was running there pretty scared, I really don't think I'm used to having anyone hunt me like that. I think I lived a more peaceful life in the real world so being hunted like that really scared me."

"Hrm", Ichigo realized that Orihime was already lost in thought and had forgotten what she was supposed to explain to them, so he thought he should remind her. If he didn't only god knows how long it might take her to reach her point.

"Well", Orihime said in an embarrassed voice when she realized how she had babbled on. "While I was terrified Chad looked so calm, as if the whole world could try to hurt him, or me, and he would just smack them down. It just made me laugh at myself a bit for being so scared even though I can fight as well." Her voice just got smaller and smaller as she continued, hating how small she felt.

"That's not true", her three friends hurried to convince her.

"You just don't like violence", Ichigo said. "You will just have to get used to fighting, then nothing will scare you." Although Ichigo really liked his friend as she was now, he couldn't bare to see her feeling bad.

"Exactly, exactly", Uryuu said his glasses falling down a bit on his nose thanks to his hurry. He didn't even notice it, which was really unusual of him, it was probably thanks to his hurry. He did not want Orihime to think of herself as weak. "You are probably the strongest among us. You can find something funny and worthwhile in this kind of situation. Strong brutes you can find everywhere, but you are kind and give us sunshine." Not until later would they realize how right Uryuu was.

"Orihime in my situation you would do the same", Chad said in a quite and embarrassed voice, to have somebody praise him like that. "I just couldn't stand thinking about them wanting to hurt you, one of my friends, and when that man said those filthy words about you." Chads expression got mad just thinking about it.

* * *

A little while later the group had now managed to not only get apples, but also three jugs of water and a little bit of dried meet. They were all exhausted after all running and some little fighting. The fighting had been nothing like the first day though.

So now they where once again walking in the alleys, but this time on the way out from the city, not into it. They did not really like stealing, so they where not going to steal more than absolutely necessary, plus they where tired and needed to find a new place to sleep.

When they had walked for quite a while and started to see less and less people they went out of the stinking alleys and walked in the less stinking streets, their noses hurt from traveling through disgusting alleys for a whole day. Just by leaving the alleys they felt as if a huge burden was lifted from their shoulders, finally the air they breathed did not feel as disgusting and it was not filled with sour smells. But with their happiness from leaving the alleys behind they got careless, thinking that they where finally out of it, they didn't really try to hide the things they had stolen.

When they had finally started to relax they heard something that made them snap to their senses. A scream filled with pain and helplessness, and soon after came another, another and then even another.

The four friends looked at each other and after seeing the confirmation in each others eyes they ran to see what was happening to make somebody so terrified. They didn't need to run long, before they were forced to turn into one of the despised alleys. What they saw there though shocked them to the core.

A little kid was laying on the ground with one older standing over him. The older kid had his leg posed as if to kick the poor child in the ribs. The younger child looked like he was ten or so, the older was at the same age as Ichigo and his three friends. The older kid had obviously kicked the child before, it was easy to see if you looked at the little kid. They realized that the screams came from the earlier kicks. Five other older kids was standing behind him cheering him on, screaming things like:

"Kick him to Kingdom Come."

"Make him realize what happens when you disobey us."

"Make him so that he'll always listen to us."

"No, freaking kill him. He doesn't need to live."

The four people got terrified at the sight, disgusted by what they saw. Before they could intervene though the older kid kicked again and the small kid screamed a scream full of agony. A scream that tore through the fours peoples heart. Spitting up blood, the kid really looked done for.

"What the hell do you think you're doing", Ichigo screamed enraged by what he was seeing. How could anyone do something like that he wondered. As he was too angry to actually think properly he ran at top speed and pushed the person doing the kicking aside. He wouldn't let them hurt the kid more.

Uryuu and Chad wasn't long behind Ichigo and together the three tried to look like a wall, blocking the six hateful people from hurting the pitiful kid. Orihime did not join her friends, even though she could fight she realized the priorities here, the kid need her help first of all. Her three friends would have to handle the bullies.

It didn't take long for the six persons to recover from there shock, and when they did they were all arrogant and bully like again.

"What the hell do you think you're doing", the person who was kicked aside said, imitating Ichigo. "That's what I wonder. You see this kid was just being arrogant towards us, so we taught him a lesson. Because you don't you don't survive here if your small and arrogant."

Ichigo felt his rage burning and knew his friends felt a similar feeling, this was so messed up. People where supposed to protect kids and those who where smaller than them, not beat them up. This was so wrong. The word protect though, somehow it felt similar and as if he had forgotten something important about that word. He was used to it now though. He had long since realized that it was when something from his past life nudged his mind. The thing was he could never remember however he tried though, so he learned to ignore it. It had come less frequently the last few days, so it would probably disappear soon. But he did feel a little bit sad when he thought like that, because than he wouldn't have anything to remind him of his old life. He turned his thought back to reality, the past he couldn't change. Instead he needed to make sure life was worth living right now and he would protect people if they needed it. He would protect!

"So you survive if you big and arrogant", Uryuu said in a sarcastic voice while Ichigo was deep in thought. He despised bullies, they had no pride. "We intervened because you where hurting a poor helpless kid and that's wrong", he continued in a 'he was explaining something obvious to idiots' voice.

"And we will stop you if you try again", Chad said in a low voice, that together with his huge body sounded quite terrifying.

"We were teaching him a lesson", the same person answered and he was now so angry that he was spitting. He was obviously the leader among the six people. "He didn't answer to us, his superior. You have no damn reason and right to interfere in our business.

While the men where talking Orihime were looking at the boy, to see if she could do something for him. He quite obviously had some broken ribs, and maybe something more that was broken inside of him. She couldn't really do something about it and since he had no fever he would probably be alright. Instead she took some of the water they had stolen and dripped it into his mouth. He would probably be thirsty, since it was not easy to get your hands on anything when you were a kid, and some water could help him get better. When she was nursing him she noticed that he had his hands clutched around something, and he was holding it so hard that his hands where turning white.

With her curiosity awoken she tried to bend the hands apart, to see what it was he considered so imported, but then something happened which made her jump. He started talking, or something closer to mumbling. "My food. I need it, please don't take." She heard his quite words and the meaning of it enraged her at the same time as she heard the last words spoken by the leader.

"He didn't answer to you guys", she said her voice filled with disgust and contempt. How could anybody fall so low. "You mean he didn't give you the tiny bit of food he had managed to get his hands on, you damn bullies." She usually used a good language, but now she was so mad she saw red. All the people around her seemed surprised at her little speech at first, but the leader was fast at answering.

"So what are you going to do about it", he said in a mockingly tone. "Your just three, and a woman, we are six. Go now and we might forget about this."

"Yes what are we going to do", Orihime said in a toneless voice, she was so mad that she was no longer sure of what she was doing. To everyones surprise she just walked forward until she stood right in front of the man. Then, when everyone was holding their breath she surprised them again. She slapped the man so hard that his head started ringing and her hand left a clear imprint on his cheek. "Oh, I found the solution", she said in a faked bright voice. "Since you won't leave this kid alone, we might make you run for your lives. If you don't we might just beat you to kingdom come." They had pressed her switch, she could never remember feeling so mad. She really didn't want to hurt them though, even if they where bullies, so she hoped her speech might send them running and teach them a lesson at the same time. Unlucky both for her and the six bullies, they were not so smart.

"Like hell we're running you filthy wench", the leader screamed, still clutching his head. "Get 'em boys."

That's when the all out brawl started. The five people did not waste their time, instead they ran straight at Orihime, thinking to beat her down first. The plan was not appreciated by the three men behind her.

Ichigo, with his speed, was the first to appear. He sent a flying kick towards the man closest to her, sadly the kick was dodged and he was forced to engage in a open brawl. Next came Uryuu and he threw some of the small stones he had left in his pocket at the second man, to both annoy him and put him off balance. Then they started to engage in open brawl. Last was Chad who didn't do anything complicated, just threw a strong punch supported by his huge build. Now there was only two men, besides the leader, left. One of them was running straight towards Orihime and the other was obviously not in such a good form, he was a bit after.

The man who first arrived to Orihime, without any hindrance, soon learned that she was dangerous as well. She let him attack at first, looking like she didn't now a thing about fighting. Then when she easily dodged the clumsily thrown punch and counterattacked, he was taken by surprise. That had of course been her goal from the very beginning and made her attack so much more affective.

Our four friends made quick meat of the attackers and when the fifth man arrived the attackers were already unconscious. Since the sight made him quite scared, he turned tails and ran the fastest he could, the leader also just happened to join him. Ichigo, being the hotheaded person he is, made as if to run after him. He was stopped though by Orihime, with her and her kindness.

"Don't beat somebody who has lost the will to fight", she said in an adult sounding tone. "He has already learned his lesson. If we went to beat him up, even though he has clearly shown that he does not wish to be violent, we wouldn't be better than them." She hated violence and would only use it when she either snapped and lost control of herself, or was in dire need of it.

Ichigo new better than to protest, because he himself realized that Orihime was right. Chad and Uryuu new that as well, even though they wouldn't mind beating the man senseless, just as Ichigo. So instead of giving into their wicked desires they followed Orihime to the poor little kid.

Orihime imideatly saw that the kid looked much worse then when she had left him. She could not understand how it could have become so much worse in such a short while. She really did not know what she was supposed to do, if she had ever had that kind of knowledge she had all forgotten it though. She didn't have to wonder long though, as the kid opened his eyes.

"Who", he crocked out looking at them with scared eyes. "Please not my food."

"The bullies are gone", Orihime said and patted the kid on his head. "They really won't bother you again. Is there something we can do for you?"

At first the kid looked relived to hear that the bullies were gone, but then he looked ashamed when he realized that he had been saved. "My friends, dead", he whispered his voice getting weaker and weaker. "As thanks, please take my food." They all saw how the kid was one his beginning to pass away, but they also saw his eyes filled of his own pride. He might have been beaten down, might have been worth nothing, but he had still done what he considered right. He had even died for it and that filled him with pride.

Orihime wanted to scream out in pain and frustration when the kid died, she hated to see people die. She should be able to help him. She knew she had the ability in her, she just didn't know how to use it.

"Let's go", Ichigo said the only one who was able to speak. He was also sad though, you could see it in his frown. It was even stronger than usual, as if he was trying to hid some other emotion.

* * *

When they left the place of violence they had gained one more apple and a tiny jug of water. Orihime had decided that they burry him, so they had somehow found a place, even though it was not really proper to use as a final resting place it was what they had to offer. There they had learned their second lesson from the 80th district, 'pride is important'. If you have pride you might be able to die in peace even if you had lived a miserable life. It is better to die, than beg and stop following your own rules. Live your life so that you can be proud of yourself when you die.

When they walked away they set out to find a new place to live in, but also to learn more about this cruel world which they had spent a weeks time in. They would have to learn more about it, or they might die not knowing how to protect themselves.

* * *

**I really hope this chapter was not OCC or that I portrayed the 80th district badly:( I'm not really sure of some of the scenes and I have no idea if my fighting scenes were good. **

**So please click the review butten and tell me what you thing. What was good? What should I think more on and how can I make it better. This is my first story so I would love to hear how I'm doing^-^  
**


	3. Chapter 2: do not kill

**Well this chapter is a bit early but that's because I'm going to be away on Sunday. So I'm still planning on updating on Sundays, but when my life gets in the way, meaning I have other things I must do, I will probably update on Saturdays. I hope that's ok^-^**

**I want to thank everyone that has supported this story so far and to FeX who left a review but doesn't have an account, so I can't answer. Thanks for the review and I'll continue this story. I have already written and planed out a few more chapters. FeX your lucky I've studied Spanish for a few years. I'm not good at it though, but otherwise I wouldn't have understood your comment. ^-^**

**Well I just want to say that everyone who has reviewed, favorited or alerted this story has made my day and I hope you will continue to enjoy this story! So here the next chapter come.  
**

**Disclaimer: Bleach is not mine, if it was I would already know how to speak Japanese and would not have to learn it. It's seriously really hard!**

* * *

Time passed fast living like that in Zaraki. They soon got used to living that harsh life stile and time passed by fast. As they had long since decided to live for the day and not think to much of what was coming next, time passed without them really thinking about it. They also had the luck to be strong and healthy, thus not making it impossible to survive in the life they had landed in. They had seen plenty off death since they arrived and it was usually the small or weak that keeled over.

They had found a forest when they had been here for about a year, and that was where they spent most of their time. There they had water resources, they could hunt and there was plenty of plants they could eat. They had made the forest their home, even though they never settled at one place, they did not want to have a place to defend.

As such they tried to not travel to often into the city, but when they did they almost always came into fights. To strengthen themselves and be able to survive the fights they had started to spar among each other. Every day, before they went to sleep, they fought a bit against each other. One match each day and they changed the pair up every day, so after three days they had all fought each other. They always fought bare handed.

Years passed living like that and their strength increased quite a lot. We will take a look at their lives again when a bit less than 10 years has passed since they died in the living world and arrived at Soul Society. We will take a look at a seemingly ordinary day, but here something starts to move in their lives, something starts to change.

* * *

Ichigo and Uryuu had left earlier that day to go into the city and get some new clothes for them, since theirs had earlier been so trashed that they were impossible to fix. Orhimie had been quite mad and sent them into the city to gain new clothes and to not come back before they found something acceptable to wear.

Now it was only her and Chad left. They had already hunted and they had plenty of plants left since yesterdays meal. So they were basically waiting for Ichigo and Uryuu to return, well at the same time as they cooked. To be more precise Chad was cooking, since no one could actually stand Orhimes cooking, besides herself. She usually just mixed whatever was available into the strangest combinations.

So they sat dwon and talked a bit, as much as you could talk to Chad. He was better now than when they had arrived in Soul Society and she guessed it was because they were like family now, not only comrades.

"So what kind of clothes do you think they'll get", she asked Chad. More to start a conversation than because she was actually wondering.

"Nothing you'll approve of probably", he said in his low voice. His reply was answered by a rich laugh from Orihime. "But they might get something to you as well", he continued looking at her own clothes pointingly.

Orihime understood what Chad meant and looked down at her own clothes as well. At first it had been something much like a dress, but it had been torn in the middle so Ishida had resewed it. Ishida had best hand at sewing and thus he was always the one who did it. He had not managed to make it a dress whole again though. Instead it had become a short skirt and a small top, luckily it was summer. The problem was, it was quite patched up in quite a few other places as well and was not really proper clothing anymore. Most of her stomach was showing, most her legs and more. She thought she could surive though, and well she really didn't like stealing.

"This is not really a problem", she said in a light kind of voice and but sadly it came out as if she did not entirely believe it herself. In that awkward moment Uryuu and Ichigo choose to come back, but something was quite obviously wrong.

"Ichigo", Orihime said and turned towards Ichigo, both to escape from the awkward topic she was discussing with Chad and because something seemed seriously wrong with him. When she looked at him she immediately registered two things his downwards look that he only go when he was ashamed and the red splatters on his body. Her brains almost immediately made the connection.

"Ichigo", she almost screamed, starting up a fury. She almost never got angry, but this. "Tell me you didn't kill anyone, Ichigo", she continued almost screaming her lungs out. She didn't need him to actually answer.

"But I", he said weakly back. She didn't really accept that as an answer though.

"You now it's our only real rule", she said, still mad but no longer screaming, instead her voice was thick with disappointment. "We don't kill and we won't ever do so." It wasn't like he was going to be kicked out, they had all three broken the rules on a few occasions, but that didn't keep her from being disappointed.

"You didn't hear what he said", Ichigo screamed, her apparent disappointment making him enraged. "He deserved what he got and far worse..." Ichigo was so mad he could no longer get his words out properly.

"If Ichigo hadn't been faster", Uryuu intervened. "I would have done it instead."

Orihime sighed, if Uryuu agreed it must have been something serious. Uryuu was usually a bit less reckless than Ichigo, not much, but he usually thought about his actions at least once before he acted. "So what did the man say", she asked in a patient voice, but she was unable to keep the disappointment away from it.

"He called you a...", Uryuu could not continue, he hated to think about Orihime like that.

"A whore", Ichigo continued where Uryuu had stopped. He didn't like thinking about Orihime like that either, but he would explain this situation. "We were hunted by a man who were screaming things like us being thieves. He had been hunting us for maybe 10 minutes already and we decided to stop and try to convince him to stop hunting us. When he then caught up to us he said: 'You shouldn't steal. If you wanna earn some money you should just sell the wench you have with you, she could make a lot of money. It's not like we have not all seen her clothes, she is obviously into that kinda work. Maybe you already pay here.' Before he finished that sentence he was dead, but at least I killed him fast. And just so you know I don't regret it at all."

Ichigo looked down into Orihimes face, straight into her eyes. His gaze said, I've told you why now you still have to judge. With his words she had realized why both Ichigo and Uryuu had lost control and killed him. The man had had touched a very touchy point that you better not touch with them, if you wanted to live anyway. She clearly remembered the occasion when it had become a touchy point and when she had created the rule of no killing.

* * *

_Orihime were sitting in the abandoned hut they had used for shelter the last week. It was her turn to guard their things this day, while the other three went in to get what they needed. They would probably also leave the hut when the other three came back, they had already stayed here for a week._

_They had been gone longer than normal and she was spacing out, fantasying about only god knows what. When she was sitting like that and not really paying attention to what was happening around her, she didn't notice how something deadly sneaked up behind her._

_A man stood behind her and before she could react he put one of his hands over his mouth, the other over her nose. Thus he stopped her from breathing, literally strangling her._

_When he had stood like that, not allowing her to breath, for over 3 minutes Orihime felt herself blackening out and she realized how foolish she had been. She had ignored one of the first rules of this place, to always pay attention and be ready for a fight. She realized that whatever this man wanted with her it was probably not something good, so she did the first thing thing that hit her mind. It also just happened to be the only thing that could possibly help her in her situation._

_She kicked her leg, not against him but against the ground, with the last bit of strength she had left. She kicked against a place were she had seen glass splinter and lucky for her she hit it. Well you could say unlucky as well because it really hurt, but she fulfilled her goal. She hit the glass splinters really hard, which made them cut into her leg. That made her leg start bleeding, which would show her friends that it had been a fight here. If she was lucky the man behind her would not do anything about the wound and if so her blood would leave a trail. The only hope she had right now was receiving help from her friends. Then she fainted and transferred her hope to her friends. She could do nothing else in this situation_

_When Orihime woke up she could not remember were she was. She looked around and could not realize what had put her in the current situation. Then she tried to move. She needed to orient herself, because the fact that she was laying down and looking up at a ceiling did not tell her much of were she was._

_The try to move failed miserably though and she realized two things, both were negative. First her whole body hurt like hell, especially her leg. Second her hands was bound behind her back, she couldn't understand how she had missed it at first, plus she couldn't talk or breath properly since she had a gag in her mouth._

_When all this hit her she could feel herself sinking in despair. What the hell was she supposed to do, she thought and since she really did not know she started to panic. You know how human beings work, sometimes they just start to panic, even though they know a situation is easier to solve if they don't. Orihime was in exactly that kind of situation. She just couldn't keep herself from panicking._

_First she tried to scream to get somebody's attention, because there had to be somebody around who could help her. In her state she didn't even want to consider what would happen if there wasn't anybody, so she just didn't._

_When she wasn't capable of screaming because of the stupid gag, she started kicking her legs around wildly. There had to be somebody to hear her. She couldn't get up on her own, so somebody just had to help her. She really didn't want to think of other possibilities, but they crept up on her anyway._

_She would be laying her all alone, nobody would find her and she would die because she was not capable of getting any water. She would became a dry corpse. No the hut she was currently inside would fall apart because it was so old and would kill her while falling apart. That wasn't right either, her leg would kill her. Her leg was bleeding and it would get infected and kill her slowly and painfully. All her possible deaths just kept coming to her and she started kicking even more desperately. Then the most probable death hit her and she stopped kicking immediately._

_For the first time since she woke up she could clearly remember why she was in this place, somebody had sneaked up behind her and captured her. That was also the reason why she was bound and gagged. Her leg was bleeding because she had tried to leave her friends a trail. The best thing for her to do in this situation, was pretending to still be unconscious and buy her friends a bit more time. Instead though she had just panicked and probably given away the fact that she was awake to her captures. _

_She was right. It was already to late._

_She didn't have to wait long for her captures to come. About half a minute passed after she had stopped kicking, she was hoping the whole time, then somebody opened a door. She couldn't see it, since all she could see was still the ceiling, but she could her. The persons steps sounded heavy though, which made her guess that it was a male._

_The person walked until he was standing beside her and she got a glimpse of him from the corner of her eyes. He looked just as most men of this district looked, disgusting. He wore worn clothes, a pair of mostly intact pants and a shirt which showed more than it concealed. His hair had obviously not been washed in quite a while, not cut either, and the smells from him indicated that his body had not been washed for quite a while either._

_"The wench's up", the man screamed to some people that he had apparently been talking to before. Four other people walked in to the room were Orihime was bound and all had just as heavy steps as the other, indicating that they were men._

_"Oh, she got a killer of a body, boss", a man with a dirty voice said and even Orihime could guess that he was leering at her. Even though she couldn't see it his voice made it obvious_

_"Yeah", another voice responded. "We'll have fun."_

_"What'sya waiting for boss", a third voice said sounding just as dirty as the first._

_"I know something we could do that might make us some money as well", the fourth voice sounded in both a better language and a less disgusting voice. It made him seem like the smartest of the five men, which was not a hard accomplishment in itself._

_"What", the man closest to her, who apparently was the boss and the one who had captured her, said. He was interested in the other mans idea._

_"If we go and get the other man around here we might make a some money. It's not often you catch a prey like her that both look good and are innocent. It should be a good combination for earning some money."_

_"You go do that now", the leader said in a hurried voice, wanting the money very badly. That one of his underlings could always think of a way to make money, which was the reason he kept him since he couldn't fight for his life. "I don't wanna wait to much, so you better go and get money now. Take one or two of the others with you." Like that three men left, the boss and the third man to speak was the only ones left in the same room as Orihime._

_Orihime herself was very confused, she couldn't understand what they were talking about and what they wanted with her. She was as said before very innocent in these kind of things and just could not comprehend in what the men wanted with her. She realized that they were probably dangerous and what they wanted with her was probably no good, why would they otherwise tie her up, but she just couldn't understand what it was._

_When she laid there and speculated she wasn't as afraid as she would have been if she knew what they wanted with her. In her mind they hadn't hurt her or touched her yet, excluding the the kidnapping, so she just couldn't think of them as so bad. Even though her side of trusting and believing in people had become smaller since arriving in Soul Society it still popped up in inconvenient situations such as this. The biggest thing that kept her from fear was her friends though, she utterly trusted them. Since nothing had been done to her leg, the chance of her blood leaving a trail was pretty big, so her friends would probably find it as fast as they came back. She only needed to wait._

_She didn't realize how much time passed when she was deep in though and lucky for her she didn't her the dirty conversation that the two people who were left in her room had. Like that ten minutes passed and the three men who had left came back, with a trail of other men behind her. From the steps she guessed that they had brought back five to ten more people and the rough voices made her realize the terror they were going to put her through._

_"Where is this wench we paid to see. She better be good."_

_"You mean her body better be good."_

_"Yeah. She'd never done it before, right?"_

_"No. So we might get some of those lovely screams. She could even put up a fight."_

_"Hahahaha", all of the men laughed together. "I just can't wait."_

_With those sentences and everything she had heard before it hit her, she couldn't stay innocent and not understand what these men were talking about. It hit her and she felt herself get cold in fear and disgust. What they wanted with her was not her, it was her body. They didn't see her as a being, they saw her as an object that they could use to please themselves with. When they were finished they would just throw her away, not caring for a second about the damage they had done to her or if she could survive._

_For the second time that day she panicked, but this time it was so much worse. She tried to scream, but that stupid gag was still in place. All that left her moth were muffled groans that made the men even more excited. She still couldn't move her arms properly, so she started kicking. Trying to get the boss who was still really close to her, trying to make sound so that somebody would hear. So that somebody would hear her. So that somebody could come and save her._

_Nothing happened though. The men just started to laugh even more and Orihime realized how desperate her situation was. Tears started to drip from her eyes and she continued to fight, or try to fight, even though she knew it was hopeless._

_"So should we start", the boss said looking at her in a way that made her want to vanish from the earth. She tried even harder, she still couldn't scream though. Like that she just quit trying. What could she ever hope to do. Even if she screamed who would hear? Even if they did, who would possibly help her even if heard? There were at least ten men in the room and they all looked like they could put up a bit of a fight. So all her energy just vanished and she stopped being able to react.  
_

_The boss brought out a scary looking knife from somewhere, but she was still to scared to react. Her brain just couldn't comprehend anymore of the negative information. The man brought the knife really close to her and then he cut. What he cut was not her though, it was her clothes. With one swing of his knife every garment on her body fell of her, but lucky for her he also cut of the gag. With her mouth being free it screamed the highest scream she had ever produced, without her really telling it to do so. Then it all happened so fast._

_The boss came closer to her, looking like he was going to do something really dirty. A flash of orange appeared though and pushed him away from her. With it her mind was sent into a chaos, she could not think properly, couldn't really concentrate on anything. She could neither hear what the orange one were screaming or what the boss was. Her mind was just filled with one thing, mindless relief because her friends were here._

_A guy with glasses and a huge looking guy appeared soon after the orange one. They were her friends that somehow had found her and heard her scream. They were Uryuu ,the guy with glasses, Chad ,the huge looking guy, and Ichigo, the orange flash. Chad ran up to Ichigo immediately and looked threateningly at the other men. Uryuu ran to her though and quickly untied her at the same time as giving her a spare set of clothes and saying something like it was lucky they had ran after her directly after they came back from stealing. Thus why he carried a spare set of clothes._

_The rest of Orihimes memories of that day were clouded in red. She just knew that somehow she and her friends had lost control after that and when they came back to their senses they realized that they had done something terrible. They had found eleven dead bodies around them, eleven of the men that had tried to molest her had been killed by them. Some people may think it fair. Orihime did not, even though it was her they had tried to hurt._

_Before they left the place they had buried the men, giving them a final resting place that not many people from their district got. When they finally left that place, that would always carry awful memories for them though, they themselves had changed. They had committed a crime that in most situations would have been unforgivable, they just happened to live in a lawless zone, and most people change when they do something so inhuman. The one who kept them sane though was Orihime._

* * *

Orihime hated blood and death from the depth of her soul and this hatred managed to keep her sane and create the one rule which had kept them all sane. They would not to kill. They did not punish each other, but the shame that came with killing and the knowing of doing something so wrong almost kept them from doing it at all. It was in that way Orihime had become their moral leader, even though she was far from the strongest of them. The only thing she had though, it was her unique mentality. That mentality would keep her from going mad with bloodlust, no matter the situation she was placed in.

Knowing all this Orihime looked into Ichigos eyes. He did not regret what he had done and if Uryuu had been the one to do it he wouldn't have regretted it either. They never killed intentional for their own sake, there can always be an accident when you try to defend yourself, but they would kill to keep her clean. For something like that they would taint themselves without even asking her.

"I understand Ichigo", Orihime said and her voice showed that she was still disappointed. "I know why you killed him, but no one deserves a dogs death, especially not when they are helpless against you."

"If he's helpless, he should not say something like..."

"I know Ichigo", she interrupted him. "That thus not give you a right to kill him though, you are just hiding from the truth." She could not keep her voice from rising, so she took two deep breaths and continued. "I know why you did it, and I know you would do it again if a similar situation occurred. That does not keep me from being disappointed though and don't think you can escape Uryuu. I am disappointed in you both." After finishing her little speech Orihime walked away to wash herself in a river not far from the place.

* * *

This was how they lived their life in Soul Society and had lived for about nine years. This day that you have started to hear about is not over though. Events that will shake their lifestyle severely is about to occur. They have but a few hours of the life they know left, so why not go to the interesting events immediately.

* * *

Orhime finished bathing fast and she and her friends prepared to leave the camp, they had slept her plenty of night already. That's when they heard it, a roar that shook they very souls. They could never remember hearing such an evil sound before.

"What", Orihime murmured under her breath, frightened and surprised by the sudden roar.

"It's coming", Ichigo said a bit louder than Orihime, but not loud enough to carry further than to any other than the four people standing there. "Whatever it is, it's coming closer."

They went into a circular position, the kind they always went into when they felt the need to protect themselves. They tried to prepare themselves for what would come. The footsteps came closer and closer and there it appeared.

Towering over them was a monster with a skull like mask and a hole were his heart should have been. It roared once more and they felt their souls shake as a response.

* * *

**I would love to hear what you think of this chapter since I had a lot of problems with writing it. I was not sure if I portrayed the 80th district correctly or if I made the people who lived her seem as they fit in the 80th districts. So I would love if you would leave a review and tell me if I succeed. Or if I didn't please tell me why, so I can think about it and make it better in the next chapters^-^ **


	4. Chapter 3: a change of lifestyle

**A new chapter is up again and sadly I'm seriously after in my writing schedule:( I have just barley finished chapter 4 and am uploading chapter three. Well it's my stupid schools fault of bombarding their students with schoolwork. But since it will start slowing down soon, and stay slow for a few weeks, I might get back to schedule:) Well I can always hope anyway^^**

**In this chapter we will finally see some important changes! In this chapter I think the direction of where I wanna take this story is gonna become a bit more clear:) I have also had a lot of fun with writing some of the parts of this chapter, I just hope the fighting scenes will be bearable. I was also a bit unsure of how to portray some, especially one, of the people coming up in this chapter. Since I don't want to spoil anything though, I'll just rant about it in the end of the chapter.^-^  
**

**Disclaimer: I don't own bleach, if I did I would not need to buy it. I just bought my first couple of bleach volumes and am dying of happiness:)**

* * *

When Ichigo heard the roar a feeling of recognition rang through his body and the skull mask felt similar, as if he had owned something like that.

"**Hello king**", a voice said and somehow Ichigo knew that it came from inside his head. "**You finally waking up in there.**" The voice sounded much like his own, but much scarier, angrier and even evil. He did not have time to think about it though as the monster was approaching him and his friends.

"What should we do", Uryuu said in a weary voice. He did not sound scared though, he was not easily scared, the reason he asked was just because he liked to have a plan. He did not want to rush into things foolishly, like Ichigo had a tendency to do.

"What can we do", Orihime replied in a desperate voice, she somehow knew that the situation could easily escalate and get even worse.

"Fight", Chad said in a emotionless tone and with few words, as always he did not speak much.

"Do we have another choice", Ichigo continued were Chad had left of at the same time as preparing himself from what was coming.

The thought about running did not even cross their minds once. While living in this ruthless place they had learned many life lessons, one happened to be that it was never good to become prey. Once you started to run from something that was bigger and stronger than yourself it would get you, better to attack and take it as it came than to become it's prey. If you started running it was all but impossible to start fighting again. So they started attacking the monster, since they all knew it was better to take someone by surprise than be on the defensive.

Ichigo and Orihime ran towards the monster first with an incredible speed, the only problem was that the monster was faster. It struck against them with a giant hand. Ichigo just managed to doge, but Orihime had no such luck. It hit her straight on and sent her flying back. Luckily Chad was prepared and caught her, not even reacting at the speed she came flying at him. He was sturdy built.

While Ichigo and Orihime had ran to attack the enemy from the front, Uryuu had snuck behind him. He now proceeded to throw some of the small stones he always carried with him. They were small and did thus not hurt very much, but he threw them with such speed and precision that it at least diverted the enemy. When his stones hit the monsters head with a terrible speed it turned his ugly head towards Uryuu and prepared to hit him with his other hand.

Ichigo took the chance given to him and since he had already gone past the beast hand he had the perfect opportunity of hitting it. When he pulled his fist back he felt how he began to pulse and he realized that he had never felt as strong before. He jumped up and slammed his fist into the monsters stomach. He felt as if he hit iron.

The monster did react to his fist though, as it stumbled a few steps back. That was it though and the only other thing it seemed to do was enrage it further. It let out a devastating roar that made the four people fighting almost fall down to their knees.

"It seems as you souls will become a tasty snack", a rumbling voice came from the monster, surprising the four as they had not thought it capable of anything like human speech. "It seems you have quite a bit of reaitsu, not as good as shinigamis but still good enough." Then it went all out.

The hand that had been on it's way of hitting Uryuu quickly changed direction and slammed down on Ichigo. Instead of hitting Uryuu with it's hand a tail whipped up from behind him and wraped itself around him. Non of them had even seen the tail. The monster brought Uryuu up until he was at the same height as it's head.

"I think I'll start with you", it growled.

Chad sensed the desperation of the situation and quickly put Orihime down, she herself could not move properly as the hit had broken quite a few of her bones. She would not be able to move for a while if not something was done for her. Chad knew all this and he also knew that he should have run away with her, but he could not. He just could not leave his friends without trying to do something and he also knew that she would no hold it against him as she would have done the same in his situation.

He ran against the monster as if he had not learned that it was futile. The beast looked at him and let out a terrifying smile as it hit him with the hand it had hit Orihime with. Chad tried to use his big body to defend himself against the hit, but it was no use. The beast was easily stronger than him.

The tail that was wrapped around Uryuu brought Uryuu in front of it's mouth at the same time as Chad flew to the ground because of the hit. As the it opened it's big thing for a mouth they all realized what it was doing and all hope left them. It was going to eat Uryuu and they could do absolutely nothing to help him. Well they wouldn't have to wait long until they joined his fate.

As from nothing a black clad man appeared from the air and cut the tail of. All the other four present looked at him with shocked surprise.

"Damn it's a huge hollow this time", he swore at the same time as catching the falling Uryuu and putting him down on the ground. "You kids have done a damn good job of surviving this far, but now you can just leave it to me."

"Tch", the man muttered to himself. "I was out and drinking and all. Having a damn good time and then I hear a hollow. What the hell is a hollow even doing in Soul Society, especially on my damn free time. It's even a huge hollow, not that it makes it much of a fight."

The man did not seem scared looking at the monster in front of him, he seemed more annoyed than anything. While muttering to himself he changed into a fighting position, holding his sword up and ready to strike.

"Shinigami", the thing called a huge hollow roared. "This is just getting better and better. I will get a fine meal today."

"Nope", the man called shinigami answered. "You will have to die." Then he attacked and it did not look much better than when Ichigo had.

The huge hollow just laughed and tried to punch him, the same way as when he had hit Orihime. When the punch was about to hit him though, he just vanished. A second later he appeared behind the hollow and swung his sword down.

It only needed to take one hit from him to be defeated. When his sword slashed down on the hollow it started to fade away. First it turned to dust and then even that dust vanished entirely.

"Well I guess it was good enough to relive some stress", the man said out loud and sheathed his sword. "Now I'm damn well gonna get back to drinking."

"Hrm", Chad tried to catch the mans, or shingmais, attention, whatever he now was.

"Oh, right", the man said as he remembered the four people that the huge hollow had attacked. "Well I guess there will be no more drinking for me today." Then he changed his tone completely. "Get out here you lazy bums", he roared. Five men came out from the forest all looking a little bit ashamed. "Why did you even follow me if I was gonna have to do everything? Well I guess it doesn't matter, but you will damn well have to help me now. I'm gonna take these people back to Seritai so the fourth squad can have a look on them. The three of you who are best with shunpo stay." The man didn't give his five subordinates a chance to reply.

"Hai fukotachio", they said at the same time as two of them left, probably to go back drinking, the other three stayed. "I'll take the big guy here", the man who was in charge said. "Take one each of the three that are unconscious." The man walked up to Chad and told him to jump on his back, when Chad only looked at him as if he was proposing something very weird the man grumbled. "Don't think I wanna do this or something, I rather be drinking. But you'll see why I'm doing this after you jump on. Chad just nodded and did as he was told even though his body really hurt. As soon as the man started to move he understood why. The man moved just like he had when he had vanished before.

"This is called shunpo by the way", the man told Chad, "and it's something we shinigamis do." Chad had heard the word shinigami before but was not entirely clear on what it was. He had also heard about Seretei where they were apparently going, but he did not know much about that either.

"So where is this Seretei and what is it?", he asked not bothering to use very many words, he never liked to talk much.

"Well Seretei is where shinigamis, nobles and those who rule Soul Society live", the man answered. "I would not normally take anyone back like this, but with both your injuries and reiatsu I will make an exception."

"Reiatsu", Chad asked in a stupefied voice.

"The power all shinigamis have within them", the man answered with a rough laugh. "You and your friends seem to have some and something makes me think I've met you before. Especially the orange haired guy, but whatever I was never good at remembering people. Oh and by the way I'm Iba Tetsuzaemon, fukotachio of the seventh squad. Nice to met you."

"Nice to met you too, I'm Chad", Chad answered with few words again and they continued to go on in silence.

"Well we are almost there", Iba said after quite a while. Chad had noticed that the living conditions seemed to get better and better the longer they came and now they seemed wonderful. "I'm gonna tell you something before I leave you and your friends to get healed. You guys have plenty of reiastsu and since Shinoreijutsuin, or shinigamis academy as most people say, have their test for entering tomorrow I really recommend you guys to take them. That's really all though and I will have to leave you know."

"Thank you", Chad said silently but filled with emotion. This man had saved his and his friends lives.

Iba would like to answer and say something like 'it was nothing', but he could not. He heard how grateful Chad was and did not want to mock him. Instead he said "I'll leave you now", as he found the healers he was looking for.

Chad could not remember much more of that night, the rest had just been a blur. Iba had left him and his friends to some people that had healed them. Then they had been placed in the best room he had ever seen, where he had collapsed on the bed to immediately start snoring. He had been so tired.

* * *

"Chad, Chad", he awoke to Uryuus quite whispers. When Uryuu saw Chads eyes opened up he continued speaking. "None of us other three have an idea of where we are, do you?" His voice sounded a bit panicked and he could guess that Ichigo and Orihime felt the same way, no one of them really liked to be in unfamiliar situations.

Chad looked around trying to orient himself, but his mind was blank. What had happened yesterday. There had been that monster, hollow it was called, and then a man who had saved them. It all came back to him.

"Did you pass out before the Iba killed the monster", Chad asked, because if they did he had to take it from the beginning.

"Yeah", Uryuu and Orihime said together and at the same time as Ichigo said: "Who the hell is Iba?" Chad realized that it was probably best if he took it from the begining. He sighed and started talking, he totally hated to talk like this.

When he finished he got a different reactions from everyone:

"Cool", Orihime exclaimed. "You were saved by like a cool samurai, and now we are going to become something like that." Her whole face shone with happiness.

"Somehow the thought of becoming a shinigami really disturbs me", Uryuu murmured. He had a feeling that he did not like shinigamis, whatever they now were.

"Mm, hello", Ichigo said. "Am I the only one that is bothered by this change in our life and the fact that we weren't even given a choice?"

"It's not like our lives can get much worse", Orihime whispered silently while Uryuu and Chad just looked at Ichigo like he was stupid. "I mean we almost died yesterday. I, at least, would like to learn who to defend my self." Both Uryuu and Chad nodded in agreement.

"Well I still think they could ask", Ichigo said in a much lower tone than before.

"It was only a proposal", Uryuu said in a smug tone, knowing that it grated on Ichigos nerves. "I think it was a pretty good proposal anyway, but it's one thing you people have forgotten. Iba said there was an entrance exam right?" Chad just nodded. "Well it's not granted we pass it."

The room fell into deep silence with all it's inhabitants thinking through yesterdays day. It was not an uncomfortable silence though, no it was a very comfortable one. They just sat there, comfortable with each others company, and thinking that maybe their lives would become better now. The room they were staying in right now was a huge improvement compared to what they were used to.

Somebody just had to knock though, which dragged them out from the comfortable silence. Orhime was the first to be up, so she opened the door and smiled cheerfully.

"Hello", she said as she did not know what else she could possibly say.

"Hi", the woman who had knocked answered. "I've come to take you down to where you are going to wait for the entrance test. Are you finished, or do you need more time?"

"I guess we might as well get through with it", Ichigo said and rose up ready to go.

"Well", the womans voice stopped him. "I think you guys should freshen up, there is a shower inside. I'll just go and get some clothes for you, you really shouldn't were this."

"Does it matter", Uryuu asked. "I mean showering is fine but we just need these clothes for today. If we pass I guess we are getting some sort of uniform or something, if we don't we will just leave and continue to use this clothes."

"Uryuu", Orihime hissed. "You could at least be polite about it. She is offering us knew clothes damn it."

"But he is right though", Ichigo said to Orihime. "I'm not ashamed from were we are from." Chad just nodded, he didn't really care about such things.

"Thank you very much", Orihime said to the woman who looked quite annoyed and confused by now. "It would be very nice if you brought us a pair of clothes each, these guys are just ungrateful." Than she closed the door not giving anyone of them a chance to say anything.

"We shouldn't say no to clothes when they are offered to us", Orihime said in a much more patient voice than she felt. Sometime dealing with her friends felt like dealing with children, not that she had any experience in that area.

"She was pitting us and giving us charity", Ichigo said in an angry voice. "I do at least have enough pride for not accepting charity. Uryuu and Chad agreed with Ichigo and murmured in agreement.

"If so you have to much pride", Orihime hissed. "She just wanted to help us to at least fit in a little bit, she was kind to us and did not want us to be totally out of place. If we are staying in this school I do not want to stand out too much. I would like to live a normal life for once." She had no idea how it would become though, they standing out was probably quite inevitable.

"So you do not want to stand for where we are come from", Uryuu said in a sad voice, he had never thought that Orihime was vain.

"If anyone asks me I will proudly tell them where I'm from", Orihime said. "But if I'm given a set of clothes that aren't so patched up I will take the chance, since we are not going to steal anymore if we enter this school."

The other three nodded in agreement this time. No one of them had liked stealing and they would not miss it. Stealing was an act that they had done only so they could survive. A last act of desperation, nobody wanted to die.

Somebody nocked on the door. Orihime opened the door again and once more the woman stood outside the door, this time holding four sets of clothes though. "Here are the clothes", the woman said as she gave them to Orihime. "I'm afraid that it so not much, but if you pass the exam you will all get an uniform. Should I bring each of you a pair of shoes as well?"

"Thanks for the clothes", Orihime said and let out a brilliant smile, "but no thanks for the shoes. I think all of us would be more comfortable without any." She looked back to see if her friends agreed with her and they were all nodding violently. "Damn right", Ichigo murmured under his breath. "We will probably be finished in half an hour so if you could show us the way then it would be very nice."

"Half an hour", the woman said sounding surprised. "Well I'll be back, remember to use the soap though." Then she closed the door after her and left.

"I'll shower first since my hair will take longest time to dry", Orihime exclaimed and ran into the bathroom taking one of the sets of clothes with her. She could not remember every using a shower but was excited to try it.

* * *

They were finished 10 minutes later than what they had said for one reason, at first they had no idea how to get the shower to start. It had taken them 15 minutes to figure out how to start it, stop the water from boiling and figuring out the soap. When they were finally finished they were feeling way more nervous and worried than before they begun. Sure the new clothes were nice and the room certainly felt luxurious, but it was just so new to them.

"You see the man standing there with a notebook and a pen", the woman said as she stopped. "Go to him and tell him your names, then you go inside the waiting room and wait until they call your name. When they call it you go inside and do the test. Okay?"

They all just nodded, to nervous to really say something. "Thank you", Chad of all people managed to get out before they left for the man. Ichigo was walking in the lead and was thus the first person who the man asked for a name.

"What's your name", he said in a polite but bored voice.

"Ichigo", Ichigo responded not really thinking it was necessary to say anything more. The man apparently thought otherwise.

"I want your entire name", the man said. "Not just you first name, I want the family name as well."

"It's only Ichigo", Ichigo said since he had never known any other name. The only thing he could remember from his life as one of the living was his three friends and this name.

The man muttered something but Ichigo could not really hear it since it was to quiet. "Well go in", the man said in a louder voice, "and sit down in one of the chairs. You will have to wait for a time before they call your name. When they do, you'll go in through those big doors at the other end of the room. Okay?"

Ichigo just nodded as a response. He went into the room and sat down in one of the chairs. Oh, they were so comfortable, he thought. To have furniture that was only used for once comfort was a foreign thought to Ichigo. The 10 years of his life in Soul Society, which were the only years of his life that he could remember, he had lived with only barley enough to survive. He felt as if he was not fit to be here, because he really did not know anything about how you were supposed to act in this kind of situation. He felt nervous, and that really was not an emotion he often felt so he did not really know how to handle it.

His three friends were not long behind him and they sat down close to him. Chad on his right side, Orihime across him and Uryuu across Chad.

"It feels as if people are looking at us", Orihime said after a bit of awkward silence. She had a faint blush across her face and if Ichigo knew her at all she was feeling very uncomfortable.

"They are", Ichigo asked, he usually did not notice what people.

"Yes", Uryuu said while Chad only nodded. "You really are slow Ichigo, but that's normal for you I guess."

"Tch", Ichigo responded to Uryuu's comment, not thinking it worthy an whole answer. Then he looked around himself and he realized that what Orihime had said was true, people were looking at them for some reason. He just could not understand why, so he started to listen. With his ears trying to snap up anything they could he managed to hear a few quite words, sadly he did not manage to hear any full sentences even less full conversations.

"...no shoes..."

"...look at their..."

"...old clothes..."

"...their clothes don't fit..."

"...wonder where they're from..."

"...poor place..."

"...poor people..."

"...won't pass..."

"...what are they doing here..."

"...don't fit in..."

Ichigo had soon heard enough and turned his attention back at his friends. "Well it's only because of our clothing and the fact that we don't wear any shoes."

"But don't you get it Ichigo", Orihime hissed. "They are looking at us as if we were freaks, we don't fit into this pretty word of theirs. This is not our word, here they are probably used to god knows what luxurious things. We are thieves, we are not meant to be here."

Ichigo did not know what he was supposed to say to that, they did not fit in here. Everything she had said had been true, they were thieves after all. Luckily he did not need to say anything though, as Chad started to speak, which was rare in itself.

"That's not true Orihime", he said. "The man that saved our lives seemed rough enough and this is a military organization. We will get used to the rest soon enough."

"But how can you be so sure", Orihime said questioningly, "that we will even pass."

"I'm not", Chad said. "The man just seemed very surprised with our level reiatsu. I do not think he is someone that is easy to surprise."

No one of them had very much to say after that and they all, especially Orihime, calmed down after hearing what Chad had to say. It was hard to be worried when he was so sure of them and their succes.

* * *

Both Chad and Ichigo had been called in to take the exam and Orihime was really nervous right now. She had soon realized that they called in people after their names, so Chad had been first in their group, then it had been Ichigo. Orihime knew that it was soon her turned since they had been on the letter O for the last few names. Uryuu though would probably have to wait quite a while more. She would have pitied him, but she was to nervous to think of anything but the exam.

Orihime had absolutely no idea of what it was and that was what was making her so nervous. Since they had arrived in Soul Society she had became sure of her life and had gotten used to it no matter how harsh it was. She had had her trustworthy friends and they had survived no matter what, but know her life had been thrown in unsureness. She did not regret her choice to stay, but the more she waited her the more out of place she felt.

Chad had seemed pretty sure before, but he had spoken to the man that had saved them. He had heard it from the man's own mouth and he had seen the man being surprised from their level of reiatsu. That was another question in itself. What was reiatsu really? She had heard the word before in her district, it was something you had to have to become a shinigami, she had never suspected herself to have any though.

"Orihime", she heard a voice call out and she knew it was her turn. She took a deep breath and rose from her seat.

"I'll see you later Uryuu", she said in a strained voice.

"Good luck", he said back with a smile on his face, he looked so confident in her abilities. She could only smile and nod though, she wasn't sure her voice would carry if she tried to speak.

Then she turned towards the doors and tried to ignore the people staring at her. She knew they probably did not mean to be mean with the stares, but she could not help to feel uncomfortable with it. It did not take long for her to reach the big doors, but for her it felt like an eternity.

Orihime went into the room and there sat three people, the judges for the exam she guessed. In the middle sat an old looking man with short gray hair. He wore an empty expression as if he was wearing a mask over his face so that no one would be able to see his emotions.

"I am Kobayashi daichi", the man said in a stern tone. "The men beside me are going to be the teachers responsible for this years students. If you come in on of their classes you will get to now them further. That is not why we are here though. You are here to take the exam and we are here to judge you."

"Hai", Orihime said her nervousness had vanished and instead she only felt determined. She would not fail her friends expectations and she would absolutely not be the only one to fail the exam. "What should I do?"

* * *

The exam had gone by fast and the four people soon sat in a huge dining room devouring plenty of food.

"Tasty", Ichigo said. He could never remember eating such good food. Both Uryuu and Chad only nodded, they had also lost all their manners and were throwing down their food. Orihime though, she did not feel as good.

"Why aren't you eating Orihime", Uryuu remarked as he had been the first one to notice that she was only picking at her food.

"Well this just makes me think of home", she said in an awkward tone. "In our home district good food is really rare and to get even ordinary food is hard as well. I just feel really bad eat so much of this food when there are people starving. I just feel as if it is very wrong."

"Yeah", Uryuu said knowing what she meant. He had also felt a bit ashamed, but had pushed the feeling aside and tried to not let it bother him. Now that she brought it up though, now he couldn't make the feeling go away again.

"You shouldn't feel like that", Ichigo said and he did not sound either ashamed, depressed or as if he was doing anything wrong. "We have deserved this food and most people in our home district do not deserve any kind of pity. Definitely not from you anyway. I also know that there are people who do deserve it, but we can do nothing to change it. If we become powerful shinigamis though we might be able to do something."

"He is right", Chad said in his ever so quite tone.

Feeling a little better Orihime began to eat and she had to agree to the fact that it tasted delicious. She was not as hungry as her three other friends and because of that she had not taken as much food, she had not taken seconds either, and because of that she finished before them even though they ate faster than her.

"Aren't you guys finished soon", she said in a teasing tone and laughed. "I'm so tired", she continued in a while later with a more honest tone. "I feel as if I was drained of all my energy. I've never felt so tired before, not in this kind of way anyway." Her three male companions agreed with her they also felt totally drained of all their energy and even hungrier than usual, that's why they had taken so much food.

* * *

It did not take long time for the three that was still eating to finish and after that they left the dining room and walked back to the room were they had slept last night. They had been told that they should sleep their one more night and that they would get to know if they passed next morning.

When they came up to the room they were so exhausted that they immediately went to sleep. They really did not have any energy left and they feel asleep immediately. They did not have enough energy to lay awake and wonder if they had passed, be nervous or anything else. No, as fast as they lay down in their beds they feel asleep.

When they woke up next morning though, then they felt extremely nervous. It did not take long for them to put on their clothes, they did not even bother showering as they did not want anything to delay them from knowing if they passed or not.

They walked down to the dining room were they had eaten yesterday and there they found two big boards with names papers of names. One of the boards was for the advanced classes, while the other was for standard.

"I'll go and check to see if we managed to enter the advanced class", Ichigo said in a confident sounding voice. "You guys go see if we came in the standard ones."

"Tch", Orihime said she did not even feel sure that she had passed and now Ichigo started to sound as if he was sure that he had entered the advanced one. She, Chad and Uryuu went to the board were the names of those who had entered the standard classes stood. The names were put into alphabetical order and it took her no time to see that neither her nor her friends names were written there.

So she did not pass. She started to feel awful, but maybe it was for the best, she did not fit in here after all. She did not even dare to hope that she had entered the advanced class. Her friends might if they were lucky, but never her.

She walked back from the crowed around the boards with a dejected atmosphere around her. Uryuu and Chad walked with her and they did not look to happy either. They met up with Ichigo and she said:

"We did not pass", she tried to make her tone sound normal but she could not help a bit of sadness to creep in. "At least we were not in the standard classes." When she said the last she felt a tiny bit of hope come into her voice, but when she saw Ichigos disappointed face she realized that they had not been in the advanced classes either, but what had she really expected. Then Ichigo started to smile one of his rare smiles and said while laughing:

"All four of us are in the advanced class, there really is nothing to worry about."

Orihime could not believe what she was hearing. Was he joking with her? But when she looked at his both smiling and serious face she realized that he was telling the truth and she was filled with happiness and pride. She had passed!

* * *

**Well that concludes another chapter of mine. Hope you enjoyed it!**

**If anyone is wondering why Iba did not remember them it's really because I wanted to put a powerful person, either a fukotachio or a tachio to meet them and I thought he fit my conditions the best. I also thought that since he was originally from the 11th squad and had not interacted a lot with the four humans he might actually not remember them, at least not exactly how they looked. He would probably remember them more from their fighting abilities or how their reiatsus felt and since it has changed quite a lot he might not realize who they are. That was just the way I was thinking, I hope it makes sense to somebody else as well^^**

**I would be really have if you happened to have time to stop by and leave a review were you told me what you think about the story:) I also want to thank everyone who has reviewed, alerted/favorited the story so far. You guys make my day^-^  
**


	5. Chapter 4: to meet new people

**Well a knew chapter is up and I just want to thank everyone who has read and supported this story so far! You guys are awesome^^ I'm so happy to have reached 10 reviews for my first fanfiction story! I hope you will all continue to support this story and I would love for you to give even more of your opinions and suggestions. They make it so much more easy to write:)**

**So in this chapter some interesting stuff is going to happen and I feel as if the story is finally starting to move a bit- Well I'm not gonna keep you from reading anymore. Hope you enjoy the chapter^-^  
**

**Disclaimer: Bleach isn't mine, if it was we would be seeing more of the Espada soon cause I really love them333**

* * *

Yamamoto Sotaicho was feeling troubled. He had gotten an alarming message from the shinigami academy and had felt how trouble was brewing every since he had read it. The four humans who had been so important in the Arrancar war had started in the shinigami school. The principal who had sent him the message had not known who they were himself, but had seen their huge amount of reiatssu. He had then seen fit to send a message to Yamamoto Sotaicho and tell him about the people and their names.

Since the Arrancar war ended Yamamoto Sotachio had felt troubled about the fact that the 13 protective squads were missing three captains, but he had soon realized how many new talented people seemed to join the shinigami academy. Soul Society had soon been swarmed with people with high reiatsus and he had realized one thing. All the arrancars they had killed had been purified and sent to Soul Society. Many of them had also had incredible potential or power, especially the espada, and now these people with incredible reiatsu were appearing in Soul Society. Of course he welcomed it, but talented people were supposed to come with at least a little in between, he just did not know were to put all of them.

As if that was not bad enough though, the four humans that had probably saved Soul Society had gone and died. In the process they had of course vanished and lost their memories. First he had hoped to find them as fast as possible since they were very valuable. When 10 years had passed he had started to hope that they would never appear in Seretai again and that they would live a quite life in the outskirts of Rugonkai until they died. He had not felt up to deal with all the trouble that seemed to follow Kurosaki Ichigo.

His wish had not been fulfilled though, as they had once more appeared. He was the only one who knew this though, which gave him quite an advantage. The people in the shingiami academy would not know them for who they were and since the shinigami academy were not a place were ordinary shinigamis could just go to, all people who would recognize them would not meet them for now. He knew it was just a question of when though.

Yamamoto Sotaicho sighed for the umpteenth time and decided that he would just wait. He would not tell anybody what he knew and would wait to see what happened. If he was lucky it would take them a while to graduate and during that time they would become loyal to Soul Society, plus they would become so sure of their new lives that nothing could get their memories back. He knew that no matter what he did when the captains and vice captains learned about this it would be chaos in Soul Society for a while.

He sighed once again. He really hated trouble like this.

* * *

Orihime was feeling really nervous. She was soon going to meet the roommate she was going to have the entire time on this school. Her roommate was a first year just like her and thus they would graduate together, if not one of them managed to skip a class, which was not very likely. Chad, Uryuu and Ichigo was going to share a room in the boys dorm, they had gotten a three person room. She was sleeping in the girls dorm though, completely alone. Luckily she was only sharing with one other girl, otherwise she would really have panicked, but to share ones bedroom with a complete stranger. The thought of having a person who you didn't know at all see you when you were in your most vulnerable state terrified Orihime. She knew she would have to do it though, so instead of panicking she grated her teeth and started to walk towards the girls dorm.

It did not take long for her to reach the dorm, what took long was finding her room. The room Orihime was going to live in was 208. She had been told it was on the second floor, but not were on the second floor and the second floor was a maze. She had probably wandered around in that maze for 10 minutes before she found somebody to ask. The person she had asked had looked at her as if she was the most stupid person ever, but had given her the directions. So now she stood outside the room, trying to convince herself it would be alright. She took a deep breath, knocked on the door and went in. What happened after that truly surprised her.

The room inside were really small, but for her standards it was really good. There were two beds, two beside tables and one wardrobe that the two roommates had to share. On one of the beds sat a girl, looking like she was in Orihimes age, with turquoise hair and wearing the school uniform. Her hair color and the red on the school uniform looked really bad together, enough to give Orihime a headache. Otherwise she was very beautiful, with a body much like Orihime's own. She had another feature just as different as her hair, she had a small pink red tattoo in her face. It was placed under her eyes and went chin to chin, over her nose. It was beautiful and made a nice combination to her hair, but it gave her a kind of exotic look.

"So you are my roommate", she said in a happy voice as fast as she saw Orihime and Orihime immediately noticed how babylike her voice sounded. "My name is Nelliel tu Odelschwanck, you can call me Nell. I hope we'll get along." The girl looked at Orihime expectantly, as if waiting for something, but Orihime was trying to gather her thoughts. The girl had talked very fast.

"I'm Orihime", Orihime answered after a minute, it had take her that long to understand what Nell was waiting for. "I hope we'll get along as well. Do you know were our uniforms are?" The girl was already wearing a uniform so Orihime guessed that she knew were she could get one for herself.

"Yeah, they are already in the wardrobe", Nell said. "I have no idea how they know our sizes though, I guess they just gave us the size they thought would fit." Then she giggled loudly and Orihime realized that Nell was probably a really loud person.

Orihime went over to the wardrobe and she saw that the right side was Nell's, since it was filled with other clothes than school clothes, and that the left then was hers. She took out one of the school uniforms. It felt way to formal and way to good quality for anything she would ever use, but she would have to get used to it. She would have to if she wanted to stay here anyway, which she wanted.

"Were can I change", Orihime asked Nell. "I need a shower as well." She stuttered over the word shower, but she wanted to be fresh tomorrow so she might as well shower and get it over with.

"There is a shared shower room for every floor", Nell started to explain. "I can show you to the shower room on the second floor since I showered earlier. There are changing rooms connected to the shower room, so if you are going to shower you might as well do it there. Otherwise there is a tiny bathroom connected to each room, it's really just a toilet and a sink though. You can change there as well, but since we are both girls you could just as well change in here can't you?"

"Yeah, I can change here if I have to", Orihime answered in a light tone, she hadn't had any problem with showing her body until a bunch of men tried to rape her, since then she had been a tad bit more careful of what she wore. She guessed it would be okay with women though, no she would have to trust this girl if she was going to be her roommate. She had to trust her a little bit at least and she would not let her past drag her down. "It would be nice if you showed me to the shower room."

* * *

Orihime took a fast, but warm shower before she went back. She had changed to the school uniform, but realized that it was pointless since she was just going to go to sleep. Nell was also preparing to go to sleep, which was understandable because it was a big day tomorrow. Tomorrow would be their first day in the shingiami academy. She wondered what would happen to her and her three male friends. She wondered what her male friends were doing right now. She also hoped that she and Nell would become friends, it felt strange for her to want somebody else to enter her life, but she felt a bit drawn to Nell. Not romantically of course, just that she was probably a real good friend.

She went into her bed and crept under the covers and Nell turned the light of. Then she fell asleep in the overly comfortable bed and dark room. Her last thought was that it would be a big day tomorrow.

* * *

Uryuu awoke in the morning by a clock ringing through the dorm. He felt really fresh and a bit excited to start the school. He had know idea what it would be like, but since it was a military organization they were entering he guessed they would learn how to fight. That made him happy since he never wanted to feel as helpless as he had felt when the monster, hollow, attacked them. He would learn who to fight and he would be able to fight and he would never again be put in such a helpless situation.

He was soon out of the bed, and he quickly found the school uniform that was his. His friends were a little bit after though. Chad, quiet as always, had just come out of bed, but Ichigo though. Ichigo seemed to have a really hard time to get out of bed.

"Aha Ichigo", Uryuu said. "You are a bit slow today. Are you getting weak already or are you just feeling scared? If so then I understand you, starting school is a big thing to do." He said everything in a serious voice, but with a tiny bit of sarcasm in it. This was the way almost all his and Ichigo's fights started. Not that it was usually anything as big as a fight, it was more like a bicker.

"Weak", Ichigo answered at the same time as he jumped of his bed. "What are you talking about? I'm not weak, if you think so than maybe you are the one who is weak." Ichgio got his clothes on in no time and he and Ishida just continued to bicker.

Chad was finished a few seconds after Ichigo and then they all went out together. They were going to the girls dorm, to meet up with Orihime. Then the four of them were going to go and get breakfast at the dining room. They would also be given their schedules there.

* * *

It did not take them long to reach the girls dorm, the only problem was that they did not know Orihimes room number. So they had to wait outside and they had to wait for quite a while. When they had stood there and waited for about 10 minutes they saw Orihimes red hair come out from the girls dorm. With her walked a girl they had never seen before. She was quite a remarkable women, as her body was just as fully developed as Orihimes and she had a head filled of hair in one of the strangest colors. It was a beautiful turquoise color, the only problem was that the red uniform that all girls had to wear was an awful combination with the girls hair. In her face she also had a tattoo that made Uryuu wonder what made anybody choose to make an tattoo in the middle of ones face. He could not deny that he thought it was pretty, but it was placed so that everybody would notice it.

"Hello, I guess your Orihimes friends", the girl said as she and Orihime met the boys. "I'm Nelliel tu Odelschwanck and I'm Orihime's new room mate. Nice to meet you."

"Hi", Uryuu was the first of the three males to speak. "My name is Uryuu and it's just as you said, we are Orihimes friends."

"Hello", Ichigo continued as soon as Uryuu finished. "I'm Ichigo."

"Chad", Chad said and nodded his head to show that he thought it was nice to meet her.

"Uryuu", Nell said as she pointed to Uryuu. "Chad." Her finger changed and pointed to Chad, it was as if she was trying to see if she got the names right. "And Itsygo."

"Hahahaha", Orihme, Chad and Uryuu all started to laugh at the same time. She had called Ichigo Itsygo they thought. It was just to hilarious.

"Thanks guys", Ichigo said and looked towards his friends with his face scowling even more than usual. "It's Ichigo Nelliel and not Itsygo."

"Okay Ichigo", Nell said and smiled. "But I can call me Nell, instead of the long and annoying name Nelliel."

"Fine Nell", Ichigo said and smiled. Then he looked back at his friends, they were still laughing. It wasn't that funny he thought. "Do you want to go to the dining hall with me, they're probably gonna keep laughing for a while."

"Okay", Nell said as she and Ichigo started to walk together leaving three laughing people behind.

Orihime, Chad and Uryuu caught up to Ichigo and Nell just before they entered the dining hall, so the five walked in together.

"Do you wanna sit with us Nell", Orihime asked while smiling. She really liked this new room mate of her.

"Yeah, that would be nice", Nell answered and smiled back. "But I came with a friend of mine to this school and I don't wanna leave him alone. Can he sit with us?"

"Yeah", Orihime asked with a little laugh. "The more the merrier, right?"

Ichigo was bickering with Uryuu about why they had laughed at him and Chad was silent as always so nobody answered Orihime. The only thing that happened was that Nell went away to look for this friends of hers. I wonder what he's like, Orihime thought to herself. If he was anything like Nell they would not get a silent minute while eating.

"Orihime", she heard Nell call. "My friends already got a table, why don't you and your friends come over here. The table is big enough to fit all of us."

Orihime thought it was a bit embarrassing to scream over the entire dining hall, so she just started to walk towards Nell's turquoise hair. Her three male friends soon followed after.

At the table were Nell stood sat a dark haired man with green piercing eyes. He also had a tattoo his face, it looked quite different from Nell's though. There was two thin green lines, they were the same color as his eyes, going down from his eyes to the bottom of his face. His entire look was totally different from Nells. While Nell was bright and cheerful, this man seemed to be indifferent and emotionless. His eyes were void of any emotion, instead it looked as if he was watching everything with a scary intensity, and his lips were set in a small frown, as if he was seeing something that bothered him.

"Hello", the man said in an emotionless voice. "I am Uluquiorra Schiffer. Nelliels companion."

"I've told you to call me Nell", Nell said before the four friends had time to present themselves. The man nodded as a response, but his face said. 'You have already told me that a thousand times and I still don't care'.

"Hello Uluquiorra", Orihime said after Nell was finished. "I'm Nell's new room mate and I'm happy to meet you."

"I'm Ichigo", Ichigo said and pointed at himself.

"Uryuu."

"Chad."

"So shall we go and get some food", Nell said. "Since you've already got food Uluquiorra you can just stay here. We'll soon be back." Uluquiorra just nodded as an answer, while the other five prepared to go and choose what they would eat for breakfast.

* * *

So for breakfast the six of them sat together, trying to get to know each other. Chad was silent as always and Uluqiorra seemed to be a silent guy as well, so the only ones talking were basically Orihime, Ichigo, Uryuu and Nell. Nell talked a lot though, with everyone. She and Orihime also tried to get Uluquiorra to join the conversation, but it went unsuccessful.

When they had finished their food they continued to sit and talk, waiting for the time they would be given their schedules. Since this was their first day they had no idea what to expect.

"So what do you guys think we are doing today", Uryuu asked when they had been silent for a while. Nobody had time to answer him though, as a man started to talk towards the people in the dining hall.

"To all first years", the man said. "As this is your first time starting to use the powers of a shinigami this weeks schedule will be a bit different. Normally you have six subjects every week, Zanjutsu, Kido, Hakuda and Hoho which is the basic fighting knowledges of all shinigmais that you will be taught further about. You have two theory and two practical classes in every subject every week. The two others are called Seretei and Reiatsu. In the Seretei class you will be taught the laws and customs of Seretei, it is a theory class and you have it twice every week, but every class is the double time of ordinary ones. Then it's the Reitasu class, here you will basically be taught about meditating and communicating with you zanpakuto. In this first week though your practical lessons will be turned into extra reiatsu lessons, as there is no idea to do practical stuff until you have understood how to use your own power at least a bit. Your teachers will show you were you are going. So just wait outside your dorm at the appointed time. Does everyone understand?"

"Yes", every first year screamed together in unison even though they did not sound very eager. The least eager sounds came from the table were Ichigo were sitting though. A whole week with no practical classes and only theory ones did not sound very appealing to the four friends.

"To all the people in the dining hall", the man continued. "Your schedules are over there", he finished and pointed towards a table full off papers. Then he walked out of the dining hall as he had finished what he was saying.

"I haven't asked you Nell", Orihime said when the man finished. "But which class are you in? The advanced or the standard?"

"Well both I and Uluquiorra ended up in the advanced one", Nell said with a little laugh. "We have tried to take this exam before, but last time we failed. This time was made it to the advanced class though, which made us really happy. Which class are you and your friends in then."

"We managed to get into the advanced as well", Ichigo answered with one of his unusual smiles on his lips.

"I was really nervous", Orihime exclaimed. "I never though I would even pass and definitely not enter the advanced class. I just hope I'm good enough for the advanced." She finished in a rather sad tone, as if she did not expect herself to be good enough.

"Of course you will", Uryuu said in a convincing tone. "We will all be good enough, the proof is that we were put in the advanced class already. You don't have to be worried Orihime."

"That's right", Ichigo continued were Uryuu had left of. "You really should stop worrying yourself. Even Chad nodded to show his support.

"Thanks guys", Orihime answered and smiled. Her doubt still showed clearly from her eyes though.

"We should go and get the schedules", Uluquiorra said changing the subject just as suddenly as opening his mouth. He rose from his seat. "Are you coming or not?"

"We're coming", Orihime responded with a smile, she was the first one to get herself together after the shock of Uluquiorra actually starting talking without being asked something.

"Tch, he could try to be more polite", Nell murmured to herself a bit annoyed with Uluquiorra. She thought that he was one of the reasons why she never got more friends, because he was seriously annoying to hang out with. Sometimes she really wondered why she was even staying with him and continuing to be his friend. She had stayed with him though and deep inside she knew why.

"Did you say something Nell", Ichigo asked her. He had heard how she mumbled something, he could not make out what it was though.

"Nothing Ichigo", Nell responded throwing a smile towards Ichigo. "Let's just go and get the schedules."

* * *

Ichigo was seriously bored. He felt as if this new lifestyle would kill him soon if anything did not happen soon. Today it was Saturday and they had not really done anything for the entire week. Sure they had had a bunch of theory lessons, but that bored the shit out of him. The only reason he had choose to enter this shinigami academy was because he was supposed to be taught how to fight. The only thing that had basically happened was that they had started to become friends with Nell and Uluquiorra.

He thought that Nell was a really nice person and she was also kinda cute. Uluquiorra though, he was almost always silent and emotionless. He thought the guy was kinda okay, but he did not get what Nell saw in him, since they had apparently been friends for quite a while. Sure Chad was also quite, but when he talked he was at least nice while Uluquiorra only was sarcastic.

Well he hoped today would be a better as something was actually supposed to happen today. Today they would for the first time be allowed to mediate for real and see if they could find any of the power they were supposed to have within their souls. They had been told to not be disappointed if they could not find anything the first time they tried, but Ichigo hoped that at least something would happen.

He was sitting at the table were they usually ate breakfast, eating up the last bit of this days breakfast. He was not the only one who was looking forward to this day, his three old friends had also become a bit bored of this kinda life. They just did not show it as much as Ichigo did. He thought that Nell and Uluquiorra also was bored, but since he did not know them very well he could not be sure.

"Ichigo", a voice woke him up from his thoughts.

"What", he said in a surprised voice. He had been so deep in thought that he had not noticed his surroundings.

"We were just on our way of going", Nell said with a smile on her lips. "You were not really listening and for a second I was wondering if you were daydreaming just the way Orihime usually do." She finished talking with a beautiful laugh.

"Daydreaming", Ichigo said in a tone that was a tiny bit annoyed. "I was only thinking to myself. I came to the conclusion that I hoped something would happen today."

"Well", Uryuu said in that smug tone of his. "If you were just expecting something to happen while you were sitting down thinking you were probably mistaken. If you want something to happen i would propose to you that we start walking towards the meeting place and we will also be late if we don't start walking soon."

"Tch", Ichigo said. Uryuu always managed to get on his nerves, but this time he would not start a fight. He just rose from his sit and started walking trying to keep himself from giving a sarcastic response to Uryuu.

"Wait up Ichigo", Nell scream and ran up to him, while Orihime just laughed at his and Uryuu's exchange of comments.

A few minutes later they found themselves on a grass plain that they had been told would be the Saturdays meeting. Before them stood the teacher that they would have every other Saturday. She was a tall and graceful looking woman with long brownish hair. She had a smile on her lips that spook of a kind and calm nature.

"Hello", she said. "I'm Nakamura Aiko, the teacher that will teach you guys how to meditate. Mediating will later be used for communicating with you zanpakto and achieving shikai and such. But for today you will be using all the basics of meditating your other teacher will have taught you and try to find the power within you. Okay?"

All students just nodded. They all wanted her to hurry up so they could just get one with what they were supposed to do. They all felt excited to try one of the things they had been taught in reality.

"I have one more thing I want to tell you though", Nakamura Aiko said. "This lesson will later be for all students in the academy since you do most of it on your own. I and some other teachers will be walking around, seeing if any of you need help. So now you can start spreading out. I want you guys to find yourself a comfortable place somewhere on the school grounds and you are not allowed to be closer than a ten meter radius of each other. Understood?"

All students nodded and started to spread out. Ichigo and his friends met each others eyes to show that they all understood that they would meet up here before they went to eat lunch. When he had walked 10 meters the teacher called out to her students again.

"One last thing", she said with a smile on her lips. "Don't give up if you don't succeed today."

Tch, Ichigo thought. He would succeed. He would at least manage to do something, since his patience would probably break otherwise. He need something to happen.

He soon found a comfortable space with nobody else around or at least the other people were so far away that they would not bother him. He sat down and leaned against a tree. He closed his eyes and thought about how they had told him to meditate.

He took a deep breath and started to feel his mussels. They felt restless, as if they had to much energy inside them. He had not done something strenuous since he entered this school and he felt like he had to much energy penned up inside of him.

He took another deep breath and tried to let his energy out. He took another breath and tried to relax, tried to empty his mind. He sat like that for a while, thinking about nothing and only trying to relax and for every breath he took he felt his body start to relax more. Then he felt the darkness behind his closed eyelids start to change, he could not say what had changed, but he knew that something had.

**"So you're trying to get your power again"**, a voice said to him. It was the same voice that had spoken to him before the monster had attacked them. With all that had happened since then he had forgotten about it. **"It is not nice to forget about someone. Well I guess I will let you go this time even though I told you not to forget about me, but it better not happen again. Hahahaha."** It finished with a mad crackling laughter.

Ichigo started to wonder if he was mad, or why would he hear voices otherwise. Was this the natural thing to happen when one tried to access the reiatsu they had inside them. He really had no idea. Then he noticed something, the voice was not the only thing that had changed inside his mind. It was as if small fireflies of pure bluish light were flying around in the darkness.

He wondered what they were doing here. Since he could not come up with an answer he decided that he would try to touch them, he had always been more for acting than thinking. So he imagined himself of stretching out his hand and touching one of the fireflies, even though he did not really have an arm in this darkness.

When he touched the firefly he felt an overwhelming amount of power enter him. It was as if all the energy he had had inside his body before came back a hundred times. He felt as if he could do anything, at the same time as he felt as if he could drown in this power. Some parts of the power felt warm and comfortable, it felt as if it was something he had used to know and trusted. Something he might start to trust again, but the other pars of power. Those were filled with malice, hatred and pure love of destruction. They felt as if they wanted to destroy him, as if they wanted to shred his souls to pieces. It was trying to pull him down under the surface and completely destroy him. He had no idea how to respond to this overflowing power and one thought keep echoing through his head.

How was he to keep this power from drowning him?

* * *

**So I hope this chapter was enjoyable! I had a bit trouble writing some parts of this chapter, especially the part you see from Uryuu's perspective. I just think he and Chad is a lot harder to write about than Ichigo and Orihime, so the story will probably focus more on them. I'm so sorry. *Bowing down***

**Well I hope this chapter was good anyway and please press the button that makes me happy^^ Review! I would love to see your opinions and suggestions! Your suggestions give me ideas of how to move the story forward and how i can add somethings that makes it even better:)  
**


	6. Chapter 5: the inner voices

**Here my next chapter is up. This chapter is a bit slow:( But it covers some important things for the plot. I also want to answer a question a lot of you reviewers have asked me. The romance it coming I swear. If not in the next chapter, then in the next chapter again are we finally going to see some of that romance. So just a question for you guys out there, who do you think is this story's main pairings, or side pairings. I have already given some hints, I think I have anyway^^ And also if any have an idea of a pairing you really wanna se, just write it with a motivation and I might use it. If it is not impossible because of the pairings I have already decided of course. I would love to see ideas with Uryuu and Chad especially:)**

**Disclaimer: Bleach isn't mine, if it was we would be seeing a lot more of Karin and Yuzu. I know they are not center points in my story:( but I'm just reading an awesome fanfic with them right now and their so awesome:)**

* * *

As fast as Nakamura Aiko, their teacher for today, finished talking Orihime walked away, to find a comfortable place to sit down and meditate in. Something was bothering her though. One thought kept coming to her mind and bother her. She wondered if she would ever be able to find any power within her. She could just imagine how it would be. All her friends would find an incredible power within them and she would be the only one not to find anything. All the teachers would realize how incapable she was and she would be thrown out of the school.

No, she thought. She couldn't think like this. Her friends trusted her and she would prove her usefulness to them. She would prove that she was capable and just as good as them.

She found a comfortable looking tree and sat down, she sat down and leaned against it. She would meditate and she would find something, otherwise she might lose all trust in herself. So she recalled everything her teachers had told her and tried to meditate.

She took a deep breath and tried to feel her body. She felt her entire body relax for every breath she took. When her body relaxed, she went to her mind and tried to clear it. She started to think about what had happened this last week and the drastic changes her life had taken.

She had started the shingami academy, which was like nothing she had ever done before. She had meet new friends, Nelliel and Uluquiorra. She had been sitting in a bunch of theory lessons, feeling like a misfit. Now she was meditating and trying to find some mysterious reiatsu inside of her, something that she of course was supposed to have even though she had no idea of what it was.

She went over what had happened this last week when her life had changed so much and when she thought it all over she found an uncomfortable emotion inside her. Unsureness. She had felt this emotion for the entire week even though she had tried to keep it down, but now that she thought it all through the emotion could not help from resurfacing.

So she took more deep breaths and for every breath she felt how some of the unsureness left her. Soon her entire mind was relaxed and empty of thought and she just sat there. She took deep breath and felt how she really relaxed for the first time since she entered the shinigami academy. She slowly felt how she was filled of a comfortable warmth and a feeling of being protected.

The warmth started to spread through her entire body and it made her feel more sure of herself than she ever had. Somehow she knew that the warmth that was going around her body was her power. Somehow she had managed to find her own reiatsu within herself.

"_Of course you have power"_, she heard six voice say together like an echo. "_Never forget that we are your power." _Orihime did not know what to think about herself hearing voices, she only knew that they felt similar to something she had heard before.

* * *

Uryuu was the one person who was feeling the least restless among his five friends. He had soon realized that even though the theory lessons was pretty boring he was good at it. He understood what the teachers said and he did not have a hard time remembering it. It was as if he was cut out to study. He could not help but wonder if he would be just as good at practical things though. So he saw this lesson as a chance for himself to prove that he was not only good at theory stuff.

He soon found a comfortable and calming looking place. It was a bunch of trees and a clear pool of water. He always found water comfortable and calming to be around so he decided that this would be a good place to meditate.

He sat down, leaning against a tree and started to breath deep. For every breath he took he tried to clear his head, at the same time as relax it. He had never used his head as much as he had this last week and he was having a hard time clearing it from all his thoughts. Just when he thought that he succeeded something that he had forced himself to learn would pop up in his head.

When he finally felt his mind clear he realized that his body was already very relaxed, so he just sat there. He was breathing deeply and feeling how he did not need to concentrate or try to press any knew information in to his head. He had forced himself to learn way to much this last weak.

When he sat there he realized that he was enjoying meditating. He thought that it might not be so bad to do this every Saturday. It was a prefect way of relaxing and clearing ones head. Then he felt as something started to change. He started to feel how the air around him was filled with power. Then he started to feel that power within him, how it filled him. He felt felt how he somehow was dragging the power that was in the air in to himself and joining it with the power he already had inside him. It soon started to feel overwhelming, he felt that the power inside of him needed to find away to get out of him.

_"In the name of pride", _a woman's voice said and somehow he knew that this voice was connected to what was pulling the power in the air inside of him._ "I will not obey you if you can not learn this simple trick. And in the name of pride I hope you will not fail."_

He did not know how he knew, but he knew that it was his own power that was talking to him. His own power was testing him. His own power were threatening to undo him.

* * *

Chad quickly found a place which he deemed good enough to relax in. He sat down and leaned against a tree, just like his other three good friends had done without him knowing. He sat down and just enjoyed the silence this place held for him. He was a silent man, which all his friends knew, he had no problem with other people talking, but sometimes he enjoyed to be in silence and just be able to think his thought through. He thought that meditating would not be so bad.

He took a deep breath and thought over what had happened since Iba saved his and his friends life. They had entered this shinigami academy and managed to come in the advance class. He had never thought himself especially good at anything but taking hits, but maybe he was. They had also met two new persons, that seemed kinda nice. They were already on the way of becoming friends.

He took more deep breaths and felt himself relax. He sat there for a while, thinking through what had happened this last week. When he had gone over everything he started to empty his mind of any thought. He actually thought that it was pretty simple to just empty his mind even though he had never done it before. He just needed to try to make his mind as silent as he usually was.

For every breath he took he started to relax more and more and soon he was at the limit of not being awake. He was not asleep, but it was as if his mind was. No thought passed it and he just sat still enjoying the silence and stillness around him. When he had sat like that for a while he felt how something started to change though. He felt as if something intimidating was starting to come near him, something that felt way to alike the monster that had tried to kill him for Chad's comfort.

"**So you actually try to communicate with me this time**", a sinister sounding voice said. "**Well I guess that you were just trying to access your power, but in this form you will someday have to learn how to talk to me. I look forward to it ****_boy._**" The last word was said in some sort of contempt mixed with a strange sort of respect.

Chad did not have time to think through what the voice had told him though as it was not the only thing that changed. As soon as the voice finished talking he could feel how power started to stream through his body and somehow he knew that some of the power came from the person, or thing, that owned that voice, but he also new that the other parts of the power going through him was his. He had never felt this strong before, but he had also never felt so vunurable. He felt how his own powered strengthened him, but it felt like the other power tried to destroy him, overwhelm him or obliterate him. It was as if it was testing to see if he could handle it. He was far from sure that he could.

* * *

Nell's mind was full of thoughts as she walked away from Nakamura Aiko. She did not understand how she was supposed to meditate when she could not stop her thoughts from raising through her mind. Even though her mind was clouded with thoughts she quickly found a comfortable looking space. She climbed up into a tree and sat herself into a comfortable position. Then she tried to relax.

She tried to take deep breaths. All the teachers who had taught them about meditation had said that it was important to take deep breaths. Even though she seemed as a bubbly and nice person, which she even liked to think about herself as, she usually had a hard time to relax. Even though she might seem as if she did not watch what was around here, she knew her surroundings perfectly. In the years between she failed the academy and when she managed to enter it, now, she had started to be able to relax a lot more. She could not destroy that old reflex of hers though, she did not even want to.

She had finally managed to get her breaths deep enough, now she was supposed to start cleaning her mind from all her thoughts. She thought what had happened this last week. She had meet four new friends and she had a really hard time to find new friends at all. One of the reasons was that her friend Uluquiorra, more like trusted companion Uluquiorra, was an expert at pushing people away. When she found somebody she started talking to and when she thought that they might become friends he almost always managed to make the other person change his or hers mind. Well she guessed she was just as much to blame since she continued to hang out with him even though she knew that, but she also knew that she would never stop hanging out with him for such a petty reason. They had been through way to much together.

The second reason was totally her own fault though. The simple fact was that she had a hard time connecting with people. She had a hard time to open herself up and show what was underneath the carefree and bubbly girl. When she had meet Orihime though, she had immediately seen herself in Orihime. Orihime was in some ways just like Nell herself had been a few years ago and that make Nell feel an instant kind of connection with Orihime. Even though she did not know her four friends very well, she had a feeling that they might become good friends in the future.

As she went over her thoughts her breath became deeper and deeper, and she herself became calmer and calmer. Her mind also started to clear itself up, her thoughts become fewer and the time in between them became longer. With her mind cleared her body also started to relax. Her mussels, which were penned up with unused energy, started to relax and for every breath she took her body became heavier. Soon she sank down into a kind of relaxed almost sleeping kind of state.

She did not know how long she sat like that, but when a while had passed she felt how something started to change. She felt how her now relaxed mussels started to be filled with energy and since she was still in a state of meditation she could not really use it. Her mussels felt as if they would be able to do things she had never imagined her body would be able to, she felt as if her mussels would explode with to much unused energy.

"_To think that you would be trying to use me without a corruption in the way_", a young child's voice said while laughing. _"I hope I will get to know you." _Nell felt weird, as if this young girl's voice was intruding in her own personal space. It felt out of place to her. _"I'm bot intruding on anyone since this is my space just as much as yours. You better just get used to it." _Now the thought was even reading her thoughts, Nell thought not knowing if she was supposed to laugh or cry.

* * *

Uluquiorra did not walk long before he sat down to meditate. He did not think it was worth enough to bother go and look for a perfect place when any place would do. He just did not care enough to give it so much of his energy. If it hadn't been because of Nelliel he would never had even bothered to start in this shinigami academy, but Nelliel had really wanted to do it and she happened to be the only when he thought about as not trash. He would rather go into this school thing than constantly be surrounded by only trash. He truly hated trash and that's why he almost always pushed people away from him. He was not interested in getting to know them.

He started to take deep breaths as he sat down, that was the first step for meditation. He was surprised of what had happened this week though. He had kind of like made four new acquaints, or Nelliel had made four new friends and they had just happened to be hanging out with him when they were really hanging out with her. What surprised him more though, it was that he did not think of them as immediate trash. He had not really made his evolution of them yet, but he had a feeling that they might be more than the eye really could see. Well he did not really care a lot, so he could just wait and see.

He sat three, breathing deep breaths and thinking about this last week and his new acquaints. For every breath he took his body started to relax more and his mind started to relax as well. His mind was usually hyper active, watching and considering everything, from a uncaring point of view of course, but it was still almost always working. He felt his eyes close and how this world was turned black. Then he just sat there and meditated. He did not think about anything, did not care about anything, he just was. He had no idea of how long he sat like that, just that he did. Then he heard something that felt as if it came from the inside. He heard the shrill sound of a bat.

**"Xhahaha"**, the bat laughed. He did not wonder how a bat could laugh, he only knew that it could. **"Well I'm happy to see that you might get more aware about me. If it doesn't kill you of course. Xhahaha. "**

* * *

Nakamura Aiko watched as her new first year students walked away to find a good place for meditating. Most of them would not be able to find their power within them today, but that did not worry her. It was always like that, most people just could not find their powers the first time they tried to meditate. There was something else that worried her though. In this new grade there had entered a lot of people with potential and there was especially seven people that stood out.

Because of this she had asked a few more teachers to help her out with this first mediation lesson. Usually it was only her and two other teachers, they took turns, but know it was four more teachers than normal. Usually she and the other two teachers went around and gave the students tips on how to make their mediation better, how to get better contact with their zanpaktos and in some cases how to better control their reiatsu. In this lesson though, she had the feeling that a lot of the teachers would be needed to help the first years, because when you succeeded to make contact with your reiatsu you usually needed a bit time to learn how to control it. This was usually nothing special, but when the person had a huge amount of reiatsu it could sometimes mean trouble.

Nakamura Aiko had been right in her suspicions. A short while after the first years had went out she felt an reiatsu with incredible power being let out. The reiatsu was dark and it was coated with malice. It felt as if it wanted to destroy everything, even the person who it was leaking from. Aiko immediately sent one of the teachers to go to the student, she herself stayed here because she had the feeling that that would not be the only first year who was able to use their reiatsu.

Not many seconds passed after she had sent the teacher to the dark reiatsu until a new reiatsu popped up. This reiatsu was also dark and felt similar to the first one. She sent another teacher to deal with this person, but then it just happened so fast. One after one reiatsus popped up, until there was seven blazing reiatsus and all of them uncontrolled. She knew how dangerous this was, especially while thinking that they were only six teachers. She herself went to one of the smaller reiatsus, she had very good control over her reiatsu, but not a big amount in any kind of way.

She soon saw a girl with orange kind of hair sitting down and leaning against a tree. The girl's reiatsu was light, but it felt as if it was trying to whiter away reality. Aiko felt how the girls reiatsu was pounding down on her and Aiko had to blaze her own reiatsu so as to not be forced down to her knees. She walked towards the girl and felt how the girls reiatsu was trying to tear at her, how it was trying to deny her from existing. Even though this girls reiatsu was not the strongest among the seven Aiko knew that this girl would probably have a troublesome zanpakuto.

She put her hand at the girls shoulder and tried to shake her. She got no response. So she tried to remember the girl's name. If you could not get somebody out of their state of meditation it was usually a good idea to try to call the persons name.

"Orihime", she called when she finally remembered it. "Orihime", she repeated herself and shook Orihime's shoulder and finally she got a response. The girl's eyelids snapped open and at the same time the reiatsu was sucked inside of her body.

"Yes", she responded as if she was not aware of what had just happened. "Do you need me for something?" Then she fainted.

Somehow the teachers made it through the day, but they soon realized that they were not enough to teach this seven how to control their reiatsus. She had almost been overwhelmed by the Orihime girl's reiatsu and she had been far from the strongest among them. How were they supposed to teach somebody if they had a hard time being close to them. So she knew that she only had one choice. She had to contact Soul Society.

* * *

Later that day Unohahan-taicho was called into the first division to meet the so-taicho. She wondered what he could possibly need her for, she hoped that nothing strange had happened. She liked the way Seretei was now, she liked peaceful. She was soon at the so-taichos office and knocked on his door.

"Come in", she heard his old voice say so she opened the door. "Oh, Unohana-taicho it's good to see you."

"Did you want anything special with me Yammamoto-so-taichio", Unohana said with her famous smile gracing her lips. "You did not call just call me for the company right?" Unohana-taicho was a mild woman, but she was also one of the person not even the so-taicho wanted to anger.

"Of course not Unohana", Yammamoto answered. "I actually had some urgent business with you and a favor to ask."

"Something important", she answered in a curious tone. "It can't be anything like an invasion or a war, since you would have called a captain meeting then. So what business is it that you only have with me?"

"Well there is a situation that has come up in the shinigami academy", Yamamoto answered and as he watched her curious expression turn into a surprised one. "Kobayashi-san, the principal contacted me today and he told me about an emergency and I have deemed it best if you would help." He then proceeded to explain what had happened in the shinigmai academy earlier this day.

"So I would like for you to help them gain control over their reiatsus, since they otherwise will be an danger to both themselves and their surroundings", he finished up. "The teachers have asked for assistanse because they think that they will not be able to handle the seven persons level of reiatsu. At the same time I want you to check if my suspicions is correct."

"Aha, I understand", Unohana answered. "Well I guess I can help and just so you know I won't tell anyone but you if it's true that they are who you suspect, as I have realized why you sent just me. Of course one of the reasons is because I'm very good at controlling my reiatsu since I'm a medic, but it's also because you trust me to not talk about it to anyone and you really don't want the rumor that Kurosaki Ichigo, the hero who defeated Aizen, is back. No?"

"Correct as always Unohana", Yamamoto responded with a nod to his head. She was a smart woman. "So you will meet them tomorrow as decided?"

"Of course", she answered with a smile. "If you don't need anything more from me I'll be leaving now. I think I'm needed back in my own division."

"Well then I'll see you around later Unohana."

* * *

At the same time in another part of Seretei, a bar to be precise, the atmosphere was a lot less serious. In fact it was rather party like atmosphere, as it always was were Masumoto Ranguiaku was, especially on the weekends.

"Well how come it's so many people here", Rangiku said in a bubbly tone, she had already had a bit sake tonight. "I mean wasn't it only supposed to be me and Shuhei tonight."

Shuhei could feel his face heating up at the thought of Rangiku wanting to be alone with him. Until she continued and he understood what she meant.

"I mean Kira couldn't come since Hinamori don't want him to drink as much anymore", Rangiku continued and this time her voice sounded sad. "He was so good to drink with as well, but so I thought it would just be me and Shuhei, but how come we are so many and how come you are here Renji? I didn't think you know how allowed you to drink as much anymore?" She finished while giving Renji a wink?"

"She got you good there man", Ikakku laughed. "But Masumoto is right. If she finds out there will be hell to pay, at least for you. Hahaha." He laughed as a mad man as he saw Renji blush. "Well and if your wondering why I'm here it's because it looked interesting. I and Iba was going out drinking anyway and well we thought we might as well do it here, since it looked so interesting."

"Ikkaku", Renji said when Ikakku finally finished. "I think your a bit mean right know. You know that we actually agree on a lot, and she already knows that I'm here."

"Well I now you guys agree on a lot", Rangiku said with a big smile. "But everyone knows that you don't agree on you going out drinking. Hahaha."

Shuhei was just sitting there silent, feeling a bit disappointed in what Rangiaku had said before and thus trying to drink even more, so as to drown his sorrows in sake. Plus he enjoyed drinking, especially with Rangiku.

The evening went on like that with the five of them drinking together, gossiping and laughing. It was a long time since the five of them had drunk together, the only one who was really missing was Kira. He would probably not be coming for a drink with them for quite a while though.

When the night was late and all of them was at least little bit drunk Rangiku asked something interesting.

"I heard you found a huge hollow in Rugonkai, Iba", she said as steady as she could, which was not very stead because she was very drunk. "Do you know what it was doing there?"

"A huge hollow is no fun", Ikkaku said before Iba had time to say anything. "It should have been an army. That might have been fun." When Ikkaku was drunk all he could think of was fights and more sake, much like normal but worse.

"No idea", Iba answered when Ikkaku finished. "But I came across four people when I killed the hollow."

"More dead, huh", Renji said in a sad voice. He was the least drunk among them, but the thought of people out in Rugonkai dying because of a hollow attack always made him sad. His friends had died that way.

"Nope, they were alive", Iba answered in a casual tone, as if it was something that happened every day.

"What", the other four shinigamis said together. "How long did it take for you to come and kill the hollow", Shuehei continued.

"Were they strong, the four that the hollow attacked", Ikkaku asked his eyes shining with the thought of meeting somebody that would be worth fighting.

"Well you are actually right Ikkaku", Iba answered. "They had a strong reiatsu but they had no idea of how to use it. If I had not come when I came they would have died. They had tried fighting it, the huge hollow, but failed. But well I told them that they should try to enter the shinigami academy, so you might get yourself the fight when they graduate. If they have as much potential as I though anyway."

"Yes", Ikkaku screamed and started to dance his lucky dance.

"But there was something strange", Iba mumbled to himself.

"Something strange", Rangiku said with a smile filled of happiness. "I'm sensing some good gossip. Out with it." The last was not asked, it was commanded.

"Well on of the persons, a boy", Iba said in a low voice. "Had really orange hair and somehow I think I have seen him somewhere before." His word made one thought fly through everyones head. Ichigo, they all thought.

"How did his friends look", Renji asked with an urgency in his voice. He did not dare think that it could be them.

"Well one was a huge looking guy", Iba said. "One was a pretty thin looking guy with glasses and then there was a girl with long orange hair and a quite developed body." With his descriptions everyones mistakes was confirmed, it could not be anyone else than Ichigo and his friends. No, that would be a too big coincides.

"Yeah, Ichigo is back", Ikkaku screamed and continued to dance his lucky dance, screaming lucky even higher than before. The others three reactions was quite different though. The other three sunk into an uncomfortable silence, thinking how this turn of events would turn out and what would happen in Seretei now.

Renji's head though, it was not filled with any complicated thoughts about how things would turn out when Ichigo graduated. No, his head was only filled with one thought. What would Rukia think and even worse, what would she do?

* * *

**I hope this chapter was not to slow in the beginning. The beginning of this chapter was actually something I had planed out from when I began writing this story, so I kind felt my inspiration go out of control. But it was also kind of necessary to write, since I wanted to hint a little bit to what kind of zanpakutos they would have:)**

**Well I hoped you liked this chapter anyway. I would love it if you left me a review and told me what you thought about it, even if you did not like it. And if you have nothing to say about this chapter, guess what pairings I'm using and tell me which you would like me to use, especially if you have an ideas for Uryuu and Chad cause I have a hard time pairing them with anyone. Chad is seriously the hardest. **

**Review, review^^ And tell me:)**


	7. Chapter 6: the seventh

**Hello there, a new chapter is up once again. I'm so happy for everyone that has reviewed, favorited or alerted this story so far:) I can't believe that I have almost been doing this for two months. I don't think I would have been able to keep the inspiration going if not for some of your wonderful reviews^^**

**One thing I have to say though, is that I probably won't put up a chapter next week. Since next week is a holiday week in my school and I have a friend, who lives quite far away, who is coming down so I probably won't have any time writing:( I also need to gather some more inspiration and plan things that are going to happen in the future of this story. But after this week I'm going to continue to upload chapters every week. I'm just going to take one week break to gather my inspiration so that I can continue writing this story without decreasing the quality. But I hope that you will like and review this chapter anyway!^-^**

**After my one week break, we are finally going to see some romance:) I can't wait and I hope that you guys feel the same! Do any of you have a guess of which the pairings are?**

**Disclaimer: Bleach isn't mine, if it was I would not know what to do right now. I mean you can't write a fanfiction from your own story, can you?**

* * *

Unohana-taicho was looking around, watching her surroundings. It was a long time since she had last been inside the shinigami academy, and it brought back nostalgic memories of her own time in this school.

She soon arrived at the grass field were she was supposed to meet the seven people that she would teach. She was looking forward to see if four of them truly was Ichigo and his friends. She hoped it would not be to hard to teach the seven people to control their reiatsus whoever they were though. She suspected that it would not go as easy as she hoped.

She did not have to wait long until one of people she was supposed to teach came, even though the lesson was not supposed yet. It was actually 20 minutes left until it started.

The that arrived was a black haired boy with two green piercing eyes and two green tattoos in his face. His face was void of any emotion and she could not figure out what he thought about being forced to have an extra lesson on a Sunday when he was supposed to be able to do what he wanted, since Sundays was the free day on the academy.

The boy did not even greet her when he arrived. He just stopped when he was a few meters in front of her and started to look towards the way he came from, as if he was waiting for somebody. If she had to guess she would think that he was waiting for one, or more, of the others she was also teaching.

When twenty minutes had passed, the black haired boy had still not said a word, and when the lesson had officially started a group of five started to come. She immediately recognized four of them as the Ryoka that had broken in to Soul Society not that long ago and then later had saved Soul Society from Aizen and his arrancar. So the so-taicho was right, she thought. They had started in the shinigami academy. Interesting, she thought.

She saw how a girl with turquoise colored hair, the only one in the group of five that she did not recognize, called the boy with black hair and told him to come and chat with them instead of standing alone.

Unhand let the six people talk as she still was waiting for the last one of her students, she did not see the point of starting when somebody was missing. When she had waited for ten minutes and nobody had appeared she got a tiny bit annoyed though, she did not like people who kept her waiting. She thought she might as well start since she had no idea when the last person would arrive.

"Hrm", she said to get the six peoples attention, but since they were so engrossed in their talking they did not hear her. This of course made her even more annoyed.

"Hrm", she tried again a little bit louder. "This lesson is starting now." That got the six peoples attention and they walked towards her. "I want you to sit down on the ground in a circle", she continued as she herself sat down."

"I'm going to teach you all a bit about controlling your reiatsus", Unhand continued when they all sat down. "The reason why you are here and not everyone in your class is because you guys have a very big amount of reiatsu and you have very little controll over it. If you guys do not gain control over it you will be a danger to yourselves and the people around you. So that's what I'm going to teach you about."

"Weren't we supposed to be seven here", a man with black hair and glasses said. Ishida Uryuu if she remembered correctly.

"Yes we were", Unohana answered and everyone could see how her expression changed. She was still smiling but now that gave her face a dangerous and annoyed feeling. It showed that she was not very pleased about one guy being late. "Well before we start I wanted you guys to present yourselves so that I know what I'm supposed to call you. I myself am Unohana Retsu, captain over..." She did not have time to say anything more as she was interrupted by somebody else. A guy with short blue hair was running towards them as fast as he could while continuously saying: "I'm sorry that I'm late."

He soon arrived there and sat down besides the black haired boy that had arrived very early. Towards the black haired boy he scowled and said: "Why didn't you wake me up, it's your fault that I'm late."

"Tch", the boy responded. "I did not know that I had become responsible for anyone like you."

"Uluqiorra", the girl with turquoise hair said with a big smile towards the black haired boy that just spoke. "Who is this? How come you know him but I do not?"

"That is my new roommate", the boy answered without any emotion in his voice, as if he did not notice the killing aura that the girl was letting out.

Unohana-taicho thought they had been bickering and talking for too long now and wanted to remind them that this was actually a lesson.

"Hrm", she said and immediately got everyones attention. "As I was saying before I was interrupted." She directed a chilling smile towards the blue haired boy. "I am Unohana Retsu, captain of the fourth squad which is also known as the healing squad. I am going to teach you seven how to control your reiatsus so that you do not harm anyone. Now I want you to give me your names so that we can start."

"Ichigo", the boy with orange hair stated at the same time as confirming her suspicions of who he was.

"Chad."

"Uryuu."

"Orihime."

Nelliel tu Odenschwank."

"Uluquiorra Schiffer."

"Grimmjov Jaegerjaquez", the boy with blue hair finished.

"Well then lets start", Unohana said in a light voice that would have terrified anyone who knew her.

* * *

Ichigo was feeling very frustrated. He kept trying to control his powers and complete the exercises that Unohana-taicho gave them, but he found it next to impossible. It was as if his power wanted to keep him from controlling it.

Yesterday, when he had wished for something to happen, his power had overwhelmed him. He had not managed to control it at all and when a teacher came and woke him up from his mediation he had noticed how he had destroyed his surroundings. There had been small cracks in the ground and the tree had looked as if it was dying, and all of it because he had lost control. He did not want to imagine what would happen if he let his power loss among the other students.

Unohana-taicho had told them that they all had strong reiatsus and thus did not really need to be worried about harming each other, since if you yourself have a strong reiatsu you will have an easier time standing against someone else who also have a strong reiatsu. It was all pretty logical, but it still made Ichigo sigh with relif when he heard it. He did not want to ever harm his friends. They were precious to him.

The reason why he was feeling frustrated and annoyed at himself though was because he had completed the lest amount of exercises given by Unohana-taicho. He seemed to have the most trouble with controlling the amount of reiatsu that was seeping out of him and the exercises were you were supposed to concentrate a small amount of reiatsu in a ball that was floating a little bit over your hand was killing him. He was pretty good at concentrating his reiatsu in some part of his body and thus strengthening his mussels and skin, but when he was supposed to do it outside his body, argh. He decided that this would probably kill him.

It did not help him to see that Uryuu seemed to be really good at it as well. Uryuu was especially good at the part of concentrating his reiatsu outside of his body, the part which Ichigo sucked at and he kept taunting him about it. The first time when he had easily cleared a exercise that Ichigo was having trouble with he had tease him with mean words, but it had ended with Unohana-taicho getting so mad at him that he had not dared do it again. Instead he cast victorious glances at Ichigo every time he did cleared something unnaturally easy or when Ichigo did an incredibly stupid fail.

What made Ichigo happy though was that Unohana had not allowed them to go into deep meditation, which meant that he had not heard that spooky and malice filled voice again. Ichigo hoped that he would not have to hear it until he knew more about what it was.

"Hrm", Unohana said because that was apparently what she did when she wanted to have somebody's attention. "We will end this lesson know since I do not think it would be healthy to have you use up more of your reiatsus since you have already used up quite a lot." Now that she said it Ichigo realized that he was actually feeling quite tired, he felt as if power was constantly seeping out of his body at the same time as his reserves of power was quite small compared to how big they usually were. He was also famished and looked forward to when dinner would be served. They had of course had a lunch pause, but that was at least six hours ago and he needed to refill his stomach.

"I am going to meet you seven o'clock next Saturday again", Unohana continued. "Instead of your ordinary reiatsu lesson you will be taught reiatsu control by me. So I expect to see you all here when the reiatsu lesson starts. This is not because you are chosen as specials or anything, it is because you could otherwise become a danger to your surroundings. Is that understood." When Unohana heard everyone say: "Yes", she soon continued.

"I am going to tell you one thing though, you are not allowed to use what I have taught you here in your lessons. I want you to follow the things your teachers say and in hakuda lessons for example you have not yet come to the stage were you will enhance your mussels with reiatsu to make yourselves more powerful. That you will be taught later on in your actual lessons. The only reason why I am teaching this now is because I do not want you to harm anyone when it can be avoided. Am I understood?" She finished the last with a dangerous voice even though the smile never left her face. Together with what she had said earlier today it made Ichigo think that she was a dangerous woman, even though she was a medic.

"Yes", he and his six friends plus Grimmjov said together. Then they started to walk towards the dinning hall.

"You were really good today, Ichigo", Uryuu said and his tone was coated with sarcasm. He did not usually use so much sarcasm but it seemed that he could not stop himself from doing it this time.

"Tch", Ichigo said as he did not actually have anything else to say. He had sucked today and Uryuu had shone, well he had done really well at least. Ichigo just could not find a sarcastic or mean comment to answer Uryuus with, so he stayed silent. When Uryuu noticed that he did not answer a smug and disgusting smile started to appear on his face. No, it was not a smile, Ichigo thought. It was a smirk and it annoyed the hell out of him. So he decided that he would show that bastard.

Tomorrow they were going to have their first practical lessons and he would at least excel at zanjutsu. He would not expect himself to excel at Kido, since to be good at Kido you needed to be good at controlling your reiatsu, which he obviously wasn't. He would show Uryuu and all the others. He would show them that he could excel in zanjutsu, because he damn well had to excel in something and he was good at physical combat.

* * *

When Ichigo went to sleep that night he was deathly tired. He felt as if he could sleep for an eternity. He guessed it was because he had used up so much reiatsu during the lesson, but it didn't really matter why it just was a fact. So as fast as his head hit the pillow he fell asleep, but it was not a deep and free sleep. Instead it was a sleep plagued with dreams.

_It was dark all around him. When he looked around himself the only thing he could see was ominous shadows of huge houses, but they were to big to be anything he had ever seen before. He looked around himself again and again, but nothing changed. Even if it had though he would probably not have noticed it since he could not see much because of the darkness. _

_"Ichgio", he heard somebody say, probably a old man if Ichigo heard correctly. At the same time as the man spoke he heard how someone, or something, started to move. It's footstep echoed into this silent and dark world around him. _

_"I am...", the man continued but Ichigo just could not make out what he was saying even though it was so quite around him. "I need to talk to you when he is not around, but it seems as if you are not ready yet. Just listen to this though, be ware of him. Be ware of the hollow inside." The man's voice just got more and more silent, as if he was fading away, and the last word came out as a whisper. When he was gone something else filled the silence. A mad crackling laughter filled it, chilling Ichigo to the bone. _

Ichigo woke up soaked in sweat. What the hell were the voices he was hearing? One of the voices had sounded kind, but the other just kept haunting him. It was as if he had something within himself that wanted to destroy him.

He knew he probably should go back to sleep, but he did not want to have another of those mad nightmares, and since it was 6 o'clock he might as well go up. Today was a big day, he would finally have his two first practical lessons, kido and zanjutsu. So he crawled out from his bed, without waking Chad and Uryuu, and went into the shower. He took a long and cold shower to clear his head, it was a well needed one.

* * *

Orihime started the day with a long and nice shower, even though she knew it was probably useless. She would have her first practical lessons and would probably be soaked with sweat before she finished, but she just could not resist the shower. It was just so comfortable to shower, to feel the hot water wash away all the dirt at the same time as her muscles relaxed. Sometimes she even felt as if her troubles was washed away, even though she knew it was not possible.

When she finished showering and clothing herself Nell was also up and clothed, so they walked down together to the dining hall where they would meet the guys. On the first day her three friends had picked her up outside the dorm, but they had soon decided that it was not the most effective way. So now they meet in the dining hall, at the table that had kind of like become theirs, and ate breakfast together.

When the two of them arrived at the table they saw that both Uluquiorra and Ichigo was there, but no one else. It was no surprise that Uluqiorra was there since he apparently liked waking up early, Nell had told her so anyway, but to see Ichigo there without Chad and Uryuu was a small surprise.

"Hello Ichigo, Uluquiorra", Orihime said while Nell only said hello, not bothering to say their names. "I and Nell will go and get some breakfast now."

"Hello, Orihime Nell", Ichigo answered with one of his rare smiles.

"Of course you will go and get breakfast", Uluquiorra murmured sounding a tiny bit annoyed. "Otherwise you would not be here would you. You do not have to say everything you are doing when it's rather obvious, onna." His entire little speech was void of any emotion, as he always was, and it was quite clearly directed at Orihime. Even though the last word was quite disrespectful it was not uttered with any kind of contempt, Orihime knew that it was just the way Uluqiorra spoke. Even though it had taken her a while to get used to the emotionless way he spoke when he wanted to say something. Apparently Ichigo was not quite as used to it or as accepting of it as Orihime.

"What did you say", Ichigo said to Uluguiorra in a harsh tone. "I know that you seem to be a bastard but you don't have to show it all the time. I can't believe that Nell would ever stay with someone like you." The last sentence was muttered and his tone sounded a bit jealous, but he did not even look as if he was aware of what he was saying.

"What did you say, you piece of trash", Uluquiorra said his eyes blazing, it was the first time Orihime had ever seen him show so much emotion. She felt something uncomfortable quiver in her stomach, but she quickly pressed it down. Whatever it was it was not important. She needed to stop Uluquiorra and Ichigo from fighting. She was not the only one to think so though.

"Stop it", Nell said. "You guys could both stop being mean. I know that none of you will probably apologies, but you should think more of what you say. Uluquiorra I know that whenever you talk you have to sound emotionless and that you never think about whether it will hurt somebody, but you should try to think at least a little bit about it. Other people can get upset. And don't interrupt me I'm not finished. That goes for you to Ichigo. Even the Uluquiorra said something wrong you could think about what you say as well." Nell did not give the two males a chance to talk back and when she finished Ichigo stared at her in surprise. He would never have thought that nice and bubbly Nell could sound so harsh. Uluquiorra who had known her longer was not surprised though, since he had seen this side of her before.

Uryuu and Chad did not arrive long after and together the six of them ate breakfast. Ichigo and Uluquiorra did not fight any more, but they had still not totally forgiven each other. It would come, the others thought. What they had said to each other was pretty harsh, but since one of them had a sarcastic mouth and the other had a rash temperament it was not all that surprising that they would clash. Friends could still be friends even if they clashed sometimes, Ichigo and Uryuu were a perfect example of that.

* * *

When they finished breakfast they all headed for the zanjutusu classroom. Their first lesson for the day would be zanjutsu in theory, but the second one would be a practical zanjutsu class and that was what they were all looking forward to.

They advanced class was soon gathered inside the lecture hall where they had and would have theory in zanjutsu. Ichigo could still remember when he had arrived in this classroom for the first time, it had been his and his friends first lesson and they did not know what to expect.

_They had managed to find their classroom pretty fast, since every room had a number and were put up in a special order. Their classroom for zanjutsu __theory _was 209, the two to show that it was an lecture hall and the nine to show that it was lecture hall number nine. 

_When they entered the room they realized that they were far from the first to arrive, even though they were a bit early. They took seats at the back row, in the back row you had the best oversight of what happened in the room and their instincts still told them to be careful with their lives. _

_They did not need to wait long until the lesson started and a woman arrived. The woman was of average hight and had a long black ponytail. She carried a sword like most other teachers did, but when she walked she had her hand on it. It looked as if she was prepared to draw. _

_"Hi, younglings of the advanced class", she said when she stood in front of them all. "My name is Ishikawa Kasumi and I'm the one who is going to teach you people about zanjutsu. Before we start this lesson I'm gonna say one thing. I am a former officer of the 11th squad and I will tolerate in playing around. I have high expectations of you all since you are in the advanced class and that's just something you will have to get used to. One last warning if I say something I expect to be obeyed. That's it, let your first lesson start."_

* * *

Since that day Ichigo had grown to like this teacher pretty much. She was rough, tolerated no playing around and in his opinion she felt as if she actually came from a military organization.

The six of them did not have to wait long up in the back row before Ishikawa Kasumi arrived for the day. It felt much like the first day had, since this time the atmosphere in the class room was much the same. It was probably because they would have their first practical lesson today.

"Hi younglings", she said to them all. She seemed to like the word younglings, as that was the word she always used when she spoke to them. "Today I can guess that you are all a bit excited about having the first practical lesson and all, but the theory lesson is before and I expect you to listen to what I say no matter what. One thing though before we start, is that today you are going to be given your first wooden swords, you will carry them with you where ever you go. They will of course not be used, only if you spar and if I hear something else... The wooden swords are formed as a katana, which most zanpaktos are when they are not released, so that's what we teach before you are able to manifest your own. Well you will be given them at the beginning of the practical lesson. Now we are going to talk about how you hold a katana."

The lesson passed fast and soon they went out from the class room and into another room. They had entered a pretty big room, but without any chairs or anything. It was just a wooden floor and nothing more. Perfect for sparing. They were around twenty in the zanjutsu class, and Ichigo had soon noticed that it was far from the entire advanced class. The only time the advanced class was together was on the Seretei lessons and on the reiatsu lessons, otherwise they were divided in groups of three. Ichigo just thought that the six of them were lucky to have come in the same class.

She handed out the wooden swords and somehow it felt really wrong in Ichigos hand. It felt kind of light and just weird. But he ignored the thought, it was not as if he had ever held a sword before anyway. He was probably just not used to it.

"Well, now that you all have your wooden swords we can start", Ishikawa Kasumi said to them. "For today I will divid you in pairs and you will spar against each other. And I'm saying spar, no serious hurting. So go and stand next to the person whose name I call you up with, then when I say start you start. I'll be walking around, looking how you are doing, since this exercise is most for me to see your levels."

* * *

Ichigo was paried up with Grimmjov, the blue haired boy who had also been taking lessons from Unohana-taicho. Nelliel and Orihime was paired up, Uluquiorra and Uryuu was paired up and Chad was going to spar against a boy that did not look as if he could hold his ground against anyone, least of all against a giant like Chad.

Ichigo thought it was a bit strange that he and his friends had been paired up together, and that only Chad was paired with someone who had not taken lessons from Unohana. What he did not know was that the teachers had been told to pair them with each other as well as possible, since they had such an overflow of reiatsu. Since they still did not really know how to control it Unohana had thought it safest if they mostly sparred against each other, so she had told the teachers so.

When the teacher told them to start Grimmjov immediately ran towards Ichigo, with a feline smile on his lips. It was as if he was looking forward to this fight. When he was just before Ichigo he brought his sword up over his head and slammed it down. If Ichigo had not been prepared he would probably not have been able to block, it was that fast. Now he managed to save his head from a hard blow, but it still stung in his arm. Grimmjov had used a lot of force.

When Grimmjov saw that he had missed he started to move his sword again. He slashed at Ichigo from the side. Once more Ichigo barley managed to block. Grimmjov was damn fast, Ichigo thought and if he continued to just block he would eventually be hit. He needed to attack.

So he pushed Grimmjovs sword away from his and slashed him at the side. Grimmjov did not have enough time to bring his sword black and block it, so he had to dodge. They stood like that for a little while, just looking at each other.

Thoughts were running through Ichigo's head. Ichigo usually found no pleasure in battle, he had not wanted to get stronger at all until he was beaten so effortlessly by the huge hollow. This time it was different though. He could feel that he and Grimmjov was about the same level. They were not total newbies, they had fought before. He had fought with weapons sometimes, but mostly without and he guessed that Grimmjov had similar experience. Inside himself he could hear a laugh, as he realized that he was probably enjoying this more than any sane person would.

This time it was Ichigo's turn to start attacking. When he ran towards Grimmjov he noticed the smile on Grimmjov's lips. He was waiting for Ichigo to come, looking forward to when they would exchange their blows again. Last time had mostly been to test each other, now it would be more serious. They had both already forgotten the teachers warning that it was only a spar, and that she did not want to see any serious hurting.

When Ichigo arrived before Grimmjov he also swung his sword down, the same attack as Grimmjov had used on him. Grimmjov brought up his sword to block, before Ichigo's sword slammed into Grimmjovs though he changed the direction. He slashed at Grimmjov from the side. Grimmjov had not been prepared and was not able to move his sword fast enough. Instead Grimmjov tried to move to the side, to dodge the slash. He was unable to dodge it completely. Him moving aside saved him from the worst damage, but the sword still slammed into him. It was lucky that it was just a wooden sword.

Both Ichigo and Grimmjov stopped for a second, catching their breaths. They were both breathing hard and they felt adrenaline pumping through their bodies. Ichigo took the small pause as a chance to look at the other people sparring in the room. Nelliel and Orihime fought against each other and the looked to be quite equal. Uluquiorra and Uryuu was sparring against each other and it looked as if Uluquiorra had a slight upper hand. Chad was sparring against a small looking boy and he looked bored out of his mind. Even when the boy hit Chad, Chad did not make a face since the boy did not have enough power to affect him. Chad was very sturdy.

* * *

Ichigo and Grimmjov soon returned to their fight and so the lesson went on. When Ishikawa Kasumi told everyone to stop and said that the lesson was over Ichigo was breathing hard. He hurt in many places, as Grimmjov had managed to hit him quite a few times, about as many times as Ichigo had hit him. It seemed as if they were both better at attacking then defending.

Ichigo and his five friends stood together as they listen to the last things Ishikawa Kasumi had to tell them before the lesson started. All of them, excluded Chad, was a bit out of breath and starving. They had used a lot of energy in this lesson and would need a refill of energy, otherwise they would probably not be able to handle a practical kido lesson.

Personally Ichigo was feeling great. Grimmjov had been a good sparring partner and he had managed to allow Ichigo to use some of his penned up energy. It had also felt good to Ichigo because this was what he was used to. It had felt weird to not really use one's muscles for an entire week.

When he and his friends started to walk towards the dining hall, he soon noticed how Grimmjov was trailing after them. First he thought it was just a coincident, Grimmjov was probably also on his way to the dining hall, but when Grimmjov continued to walk a bit behind them even when they had entered the dining hall he started to wonder.

"Why the hell are you following us, Grimmjov", Ichigo asked. He did not sound mad, but he really didn't sound polite either.

"Well, you are the first person who I did not defeat in a fight", Grimmjov answered in a low and annoyed tone. "So I'm gonna follow you until I am able to defeat you, so I can also see when you get stronger." That was not the answer Ichigo had been waiting for.

"What the hell", he said in a surprised tone at the same time as Nelliel and Orihime laughed. "If you want a fight you've got one and why the hell are you laughing." The last was directed towards Nelliel and Orihime.

"Men", Nelliel just said, as if that explained anything.

"Mm" Orihime answered and even Chad, Uryuu and Uluquiorra who had only been listening also looked like living question marks, so Orihime started to explain.

"Well you men can never say what you mean", Orihime started. "I mean from female eyes it's pretty obvious that Grimmjov just doesn't have anyone to hang out with and thus want to hang out with us."

"That's not true", Grimmjov exclaimed indignantly, but he was ignored.

"I mean it's not weird that he wants to hang out with us anyway", Nelliel continued where Orihime had left of with a small smile on her lips. "I mean we seven were after all the only ones to receive extra training by Unohana-taicho, which indicates that we probably have similar levels of reiatsu. Plus he is Uluquiorras roommate."

"Why didn't you say that from the beginning", Ichigo muttred in an annoyed tone. "Now I got prepared to fight you."

"We can fight", Grimmjov said choosing to ignore what the women had said, but since he did not deny it it was pretty much confirmed that they were right. So today at the dining hall there was not six people sitting down and eating together. This time they were seven.

* * *

**Well I have to say that I really liked this chapter, it was kind of fun to write, especially the ending:)I am also happy to finally have Grimmjov in the story. Did any of you think he was going to be the seventh, or who did you guys think it would be?**

**As I said above, there won't be any chapter next week, but the week after I will continue and there will still be a chapter up ever week. I am not changing my pace, I am only taking a weeks break. **

**After that we will also finally see some romance:)I think I have hinted a little bit of a few of the pairings, does any of you have a guess? I would love to see you guys review and tell me what you think. Which pairings do you think I will use?^^**

**If you don't have a guess though, tell me which ones you would like to see me use. The best would be if you had any idea with Chad or Grimmjov, I am not even sure if I am gonna pair them up with anyone but if I am I have no idea of who I am to pair them up with. So review, review and tell me what you think:)**

**Well see you the week after the next. So review, review and make my day^-^**


	8. Chapter 7: a kido lesson

**Well now I'm back again. I weeks break and here comes the new chapter. I am really grateful for everyone who reviewed my story last chapter. I got as many as 12 reviews which is the highest amount I have gotten so far with quite a big marginal. It makes me so happy:)**

**Sadly though I had quite some trouble with this chapter:( I think it has some pretty good parts to it, but some other parts were almost impossible to write. Well I hope you can bare with me. I also hope that you guys will review and tell me what you think about it, for example are my characters IC or are they OOC, because I really want them to be IC and if they are not I will have to try harder:)**

**I still haven't gotten a single review were the reviewers tell me who the would like me to pair Chad and Grimmjow with. I would really need some advice on those two. I would be glad to see what sort of pairings you would like overall, but especially on them since I don't have any idea. Or do you guys not want me to use them in any romance?**

**Disclaimer: I don't own bleach, if I did the Espada would be getting back soon. I mean their characters are to awesome to never be seen again. **

* * *

Ichigo was feeling down. It was because of something you could explain with one word, kido. Today had been the day when they had had their first practical lessons and zanjutsu had gone very well. He had actually been pretty good at it, but then it had been time for kido and that he was apparently not good at. Apparently he was really bad at it.

Their kido teacher, a male called Miyamoto Yoshiro whom they had meet last week on their first practical lessons, had started the practical lesson by telling them that they were going to try the first bakudo, sai. They were going to be divided into pairs and try the bakudo on each other, if they wanted to they could also practice how to block, or break, it but that was only if they felt sure enough with casting it. He had then continued the theory lesson by telling them more about the spell, like the inaction and tricks they could use when they cast it so that it would be more accurate.

When the practical lesson was finished Ichigo was feeling pretty confident in himself. He did not expect himself to excel, since he apparently sucked at controlling his reiatsu, but he expected it to go pretty well. He thought that he at least would be average. He was very wrong.

He was paired up with Chad, which he later learned was very lucky. The first few times the both of them tried they failed. Chads just did not appear, sometimes that happened to Ichigo to, but most of the times Ichigo's exploded in his face. That of course made Uryuu laugh at him, he had managed to cast an working one on his second try, which was really good according to the teacher.

On his fifth try Chad managed to cast sai correctly, thus locking Ichigo's arms behind his back. Ichigo had laid down, waiting for Chad to release it, since they were not supposed to practice breaking it until they felt sure with casting it. That bothered Ichigo a lot, since he had a feeling that he would be a lot better at breaking or defending himself from it, than casting it.

The one problem was that Ichigo just could not get it right. That was the reason he was feeling annoyed. However many times he tried he just could not get it to activate, sometimes nothing would happen, other times it would explode in his face. As it exploded for the umpteenth time, Miyamoto Yoshiro, the kido teacher, passed by Ichiog. Miyamoto Yoshiro was walking around the students, corecting them when they were doing something wrong, trying to help him.

"Ichigo", he said in his deep voice. "You have to focus more. Feel you reiatsu, and then see how Chad, you partner, falls to his knees with his arms bound between his back. When you can feel your reiatsu and you have the image clear in your head speak the inaction and cast the spell. Try it now when I am watching, so that I may correct you if you do something wrong."

"Yes", Ichigo said in this time he really tried. He could feel the reiatsu he had bubble, wanting to be used. When he felt it he pictured the picture of Chad on his knees with bound arms. It was not a nice picture to picture, but if it was necessary to succeed he would do it. He spoke out the incantation.

"Sai", he screamed when he was finished, thus casting the spell. This time the spell did not fail to appear or backfire on him like he had done the last time. This time it actually worked. It did not work as it was supposed to though.

Chad smashed down into the ground at the same time as his arms were bound together by an enormous force. As he hit the ground he grunted out in pain. Chad almost never showed that something hurt, so it had to be serious.

"Release the bakudo, Ichigo", Miyamoto Yoshiro screamed. His voice was filled with worry. Ichigo did not really understand what was happening. Why was Chad on the floor grunting in pain, Ichigo thought. He did as the teacher said, at the same time as running towards Chad to see what had happened to him.

When Ichigo came close enough to see what had happened to Chad he got a real scare . Chad had two broken arms, they were broken at the place were the bakudo that Ichigo had cast pressed them together. He also had some really nasty bruises on his legs, were had been smashed to the ground by Ichigo's bakudo.

"I was the cause of this?, Ichigo mumbeled just loud enough for Chad and the teacher to hear.

"Yes", Miyamoto Yoshiro said, with not a thought of sparing Ichigo from the harsh truth. "You can apparently not control your reiatsu, and it is your lack of control that have caused this. You used to much power on a too simple spell, thus causing your classmate pain."

"Sorry Chad", Ichigo said in a low and pain filled voice. "I ... I did not know. It was not ... not my intention."

"It's no problem Ichigo", Chad answered trying to sound strong like he always did. This time you could clearly hear that he was in pain though. "I have been through worse."

Ichigo did not answer that, he just bent down and grabbed one of Chad's arms. Then he hoisted him up in a standing position. Since Chad was quite hurt he could not stand on his own, instead he was leaning against Ichigo.

"Take Chad to the school nurse", Miyamoto Yoshiro commanded and then come back here. "And the rest of you students go back to practicing your kido. This is a lesson, not a playground."

Without Ichigo noticing his classmates had begun gather around him and Chad, to see what was happened. When he looked at them, they had begun to walk back to their places to resume their kido practice, he saw that there was five people that wasn't moving. His five friends were looking at him and Chad with worry in their eyes. Or Nell and Orihime was looking at them with worry in their eyes, Uryuu was looking at them with eyes that was trying to hide his worry, Uluquiorra was looking at them with his ever so unemotional eyes and Grimmjov was scowling at them. Since he had only just met Grimmjov today he had no idea of what that meant.

"Will the school nurse be enough to heal Chad", Ichigo asked Miyamoto Yoshiro. "Is it not better if I go to the fourth squad..."

"The nurse will be fine", Miyamoto Yoshiro interrupted Ichigo. "She is a former officer of the fourth squad. Go now and then come back when you have left him there."

"Yes", Ichigo said and began walking.

* * *

Orihime was feeling very worried over Ichigo. She had not seen when it happened, but it had fast become quite obvious that he had somehow hurt Chad. She knew that it was not his intention though, since he would never hurt his friend. What she also knew though was that he would blame himself and he would feel an extreme amount of guilt.

She had been practicing kido with Uryuu and he was seriously good at it. She was better than Ichigo had been, but a little bit worse than Uryuu. She and Uryuu succeeded at casting the binding about the same amount of times, but he managed to break through and block hers a lot more often than she managed to do his. It was as if he was stronger than her.

Right now though she could not really concentrate on her kido spells. She was really worried about Ichigo, of course she was worried about Chad as well but she knew that he would be fine, especially since he would be healed by a former seated officer of the fourth squad. The reason why she was worried about Ichigo though was because that he would blame himself for this accident even though he could not help it.

A little bit later Ichigo walked back into the classroom. Their teacher immediately went to talk to him. Once, when Ichigo looked around the classroom, she got to see his face. His face looked crestfallen and miserable. He looked as if he blamed himself to the degree that he might think seriously less of himself. That he might become incapable of really doing anything.

She would die to hear what they were saying to each other, but since she knew that Ichigo would not tell her anything she did not see the point of worrying about it. She wouldn't get to know what they said no matter who much she worried.

When Ichigo and Miyamoto Yoshiro finished talking she saw how Ichigo started to practice on his own. He was doing exercises that felt very similar to the exercises Unohana-taicho had taught them. He was gathering a small ball of reiatsu in his hands, or trying to anyway.

For the rest of the lesson Ichigo did these exercises and Orihime kept casting glances at them. She knew that she was supposed to concentrate on her kido spells but her heart was not in it. She was to worried.

She had soon noticed that Uryuu's heart was not in it either, since he failed to cast Sai a lot more times than he had before the accident. She knew that he was worried about Chad and Ichigo. If she asked him though she knew that he would never admit it though. He might admit being worried about Chad, since Chad had actually been hurt, but he would never admit being worried about Ichigo for a reason like Ichigo blaming himself for something that wasn't his fault. He had way to much pride for that. Stupid boys, she thought.

When they later went to the dining hall together she decided to try and talk to Ichigo. She felt that she needed to cheer him up. No one of them liked to see him like this.

"Ichigo...", she began when they sat at the table, but she was quickly interrupted.

"Chad should be back any minute", Ichigo said without lifting his gaze from the table. "The nurse said that she could heal him pretty quickly and that he could eat with us. He would not be allowed to participate in the practical lessons for a few days though, how many days depending on how he bad he felt. So you'll see him soon Orihime, there is no need to worry."

She isn't worrying about Chad, she is worrying about you idiot. That thought crossed the mind of the other four people sitting at the table and it was true. Orihime was not very worried about Chad since she had seen him take worse and survive, the one she was worried about was Ichigo. She had no idea of what to say to him though.

"Ichigo...", this time Uryuu was the one who tried. Uryuu didn't usually show that he cared about Ichigo, but he did. They had just as strong ties with each other as they had with Orihime and Chad, the four of them had sort of grown up together after all. He was interrupted by Ichigo just as Orihime had been though.

"I'm not feeling very well", Ichigo said. "I think I will be going to bed. Tell Chad that I am sorry." Ichigo stumbled over the last words and it sounded as if he was trying very hard to sound normal. After he finished talking he just walked away, without giving anyone a chance to say something.

A few minutes after Ichigo walked away Chad walked up to their table. What Chad found was not what he expected. He had thought that his friends would laugh and joke a bit when they saw that he was alright, but instead he was meet by a deep and uncomfortable silence. I wonder what happened, he thought at the same time as he noticed that Ichigo wasn't there.

* * *

Nelliel could not sleep that night, thoughts just kept running through her head. This had been the most eventful day since she joined the academy. First it had been fun, it being their first practical lessons and all. Then it had been..., it had become less fun. To be honest it had become a disaster.

She looked around at her room. It was dark and if she had to guess she would say that it was around 12 o'clock. If she didn't fall asleep soon she would be very tired tomorrow. When looking around the room her eyes fell on Orihime, the poor girl. Orihime had not been able to fall asleep at first, the two of them had been laying down talking to each other instead.

When they had been talking about everything that had happened today Orihime had started crying and for the first time Nelliel had seen the girl underneath. In the week she had known Orihime she had only seen the harsh girl she was on the outside. Because of that she had guessed that Orihime was from one of the outer districts, and what happened tonight had mostly confirmed it for her. Orihime had cried and showed that she was a tender, and maybe fragile girl underneath all the toughness. She had cried because she was sad, exhausted and worried that things would never be like it was before between her and her friends.

When she fell asleep she had quite crying and instead she had begun mumbling to herself. She had said something about, "what can I say" and "Ichigo don't blame yourself" and so on. Clearly she was very worried about Ichigo. He had a very good friend in her.

When Nelliel still could not fall asleep she decided to go out for some fresh air. She tiptoed out of the room, so to not wake Orihime, then she almost ran out of the dorm. She needed some fresh air right now.

When she was out, she realized that she had forgotten to change her clothes, right now she was only wearing her old and tattered pajamas. Well I will not go inside again, she thought. Not until I am ready to go and get to sleep. So she decided to walk in the woods, were the probability that anyone would see her was minimal.

* * *

She walked around like that, with no goal in mind. She just wanted to walk, she wanted to breath in the fresh air and feel her body move. She had to if she ever wanted to fall asleep.

Without her noticing she had begun walking in a direction though and soon she arrived. She was looking at a clearing, the ground had small cracks in it as if there had been a small earthquake there, and in the clearing she could see a fiery bit of orange hair. Her body had, without her knowledge, walked towards the place were it had sensed Ichigo's reiatsu.

She just stood there, looking at him. He was practicing she saw, it looked like one of the things the kido teacher Miyamoto Yoshiro or Unohana-taicho had taught them. It was probably so that he could learn to control his reiatsu. He does this so that he won't hurt somebody else, she thought. When she stood there watching him she saw how one of the balls of reiatsu, which he was holding in his hand, exploded. As the smoke cleared she saw how his hand had serious burns, this was probably not the only one who had exploded on him. He did not stop though, he just did it again.

"Hrm", she said as she walked into the clearing, she would not allow Ichigo to harm himself like this. Not when it had no point in it.

"Nelliel", he said sounding surprised. He had not noticed her, probably because he had been so engrossed in his training. When he turned around to look at her he noticed what she was wearing and a small blush crept onto his face. That made Ichigo really happy that it was dark outside, he did not want anyone seeing him blush like a fool.

"What are you doing out her Nelliel", he continued looking at her with a question mark in his eyes. What could she possibly do out here at this time, he thought not thinking that she might be out for the same reason as he was.

"I could not sleep and needed some fresh air", she answered curtly as if she was mad at him. She was staring at his hand and her eyes did not look to pleased. When he looked down to see what she was staring at he saw that his hand was covered in burns, he had not noticed it before. He guessed that it had happened when the reiatsu balls had exploded on him. It kind of hurt now that he thought about it.

"Why are you up", she asked waking him up from his thoughts. "It looks like you have been her for quite a while. I thought you were not feeling very well and needed to sleep."

"Well, I was just", he started not knowing how to continue. Why was she looking at him with those eyes. Eyes that blamed him for something, some very serious crime. The only reason that he could think up was Chad, so without him really deciding he started to blabber. "I'm really sorry for what happened to Chad. I know you blame me for it and I deserve it. I will never to anything like that again, I swear. I am just out here to..." When Ichigo was in the middle of talking Nelliel turned her back and walked away.

"What are you doing", Ichigo asked bewildered he could not understand what she was thinking. He had been pouring out his feelings, trusting her, and she had just turned her back. He just could not understand.

"What I'm doing", Nelliel said and for every word her voice got louder. At the last word she started to scream and then she could no longer stop her thoughts from comming out. "I don't know, but I know that I can't stand listening to you waddling in your own self pity any more. It's pathetic."

"Pathetic", Ichigo mumbled not really knowing what to say back and then it was his turn to scream back. "I am not feeling any self pity, what I did made me deserve all of you hating me. I hurt Chad, I hurt him."

"You hurt Orihime to", Nelliel interrupted him. "And me, Uryuu, you even hurt Chad again and somehow you probably managed to hurt the emotionless Uluquiorra. Just because of this."

"Not disappointed you fool", Nelliel said and this time her voice was really sad. She tried to stay mad but she just couldn't, he didn't even know what he was doing. "What can I say to make you understand. Ichigo why don't you see..." She felt how her eyes started to tear up and this time it was her turn to be happy for the darkness.

"Because of what", he screamed, he didn't understand anything least of all why she was mad at him. "If it is because of hurting Chad I am sorry, but that's why I am out here. I will never do something like that again. If you hate me I can understand, but how could I have hurt you guys? Are you that disappointed in me?" At his last words he started to speak more slowly and more silently, all the anger disappeared from his face and instead it was filled with sadness, shame and guilt. Just what she hated to se on his face.

"What is I don't see Nell", Ichigo said not screaming anymore he either. "I know I hurt Chad and I am very very sorry, but that's why I am out here. I won't let it happen again." He was repeating himself, he just did not know what else to say.

"It's not that Ichigo", Nelliel answered and this time tears actually started to drip from her eyes. What's wrong with me, she thought to herself and the only thing she could think of was that she was way to tired to deal with this properly. That had to be the reason of why she was crying. It had to be.

"I hate to see you like this", she continued. "I mean we all hate to see you like this. Can't everything just go back to how it was before ...sob... It wasn't your fault ...sob..." She started to cry for real know. What was wrong with her, she thought to herself.

"Nell what's happening", Ichigo said his voice sounding confused. "Are you crying?" Directly after he asked he realized what a stupid question that was, he could clearly here her crying so of course she was. The question was, what was he supposed to do?

He took a step forward, and then another. When he stood right before her he hesitated for a second, but since she was still crying he put his arms around her. He had learned that human contact and warmth was always good when you felt sad.

"Nell please tell me what's wrong", he said hugging her. "You are an important friend to me, I don't want you to feel sad."

Nelliel was crying to much to answer but somehow she found comfort in Ichigo's arms. How pathetic I am, she thought. I started to talk to him to get him to feel better and stop being so depressed and I end up crying and being comforted by the very person I was supposed to comfort. She felt so pathetic that she started to laugh at herself.

"What's wrong Nell", Ichigo asked sounding even more worried than before.

"Nothing Ichigo, and thank you", she said as she stepped out of his embrace. It had felt so nice with his arms around her, so comforting. "It's just so stupid I wanted to get you to feel better, to realize that none of us care that you hurt Chad since it was an accident and that we want you to stop blaming yourself and just act like normal. But instead of getting that across I started to cry. I really don't know what's wrong with me today."

"You got your point across know", Ichigo said and this time he actually smiled. "I am sorry if I was acting like a jerk, I just felt really bad. I'll try to pull myself together, but I will still stop myself from ever doing something like that again. So I have to train." In the end his voice started to sound rather desperate.

"I just got an idea", Nelliel said and this time she started to smile. "I can help you a bit with kido since I seemed to be a bit better at it and you could help me with something else if it is needed."

"No", Ichigo said fast and clear. "I'll train alone."

"And burn yourself like this", Nelliel interrupted him. "I won't let you hurt yourself like this, when it is pointless."

"I won't hurt anyone like that again", Ichigo answered with a tone of finality. "It won't happen."

"Do you think I am weak", Nelliel asked him. When he shock his head she continued. "Do you think I need your protection?" Once more his shock his head. "Then do you think that I am an idiot?"

"Of course not", Ichigo answered feeling insulted.

"Then why do you try to keep me from doing what I want to", she asked him. "I fully know the risk of helping you with kido. I actually saw what happened to Chad you know. I want to help anyway."

"But I don't want you to", Ichigo said. "I really don't, because I can't stand hurting my friends."

"I know", Nelliel answered with a smile on her lips. "So what do you say about a deal. If I am still better than kido at you on thursday, when we have our next kido lesson, we will train together. We can even keep it a secret from the others so that you won't have to hear Uryuu's comments."

"I guess I can only say yes, since you will never give up", Ichigo answered with a scowl on his face. He did not like to agree to this. "But in return you have to swear to stop when I say that I can't handle it anymore. If I feel that my reiatsu goes out of control you can't persist to training. Alright?"

"I swear, if you swear to give it an honest chance", Nelliel answered with a small laugh.

"I swear", Ichigo said with a helpless laugh and brought his hand forward. Nelliel took his hand and shock it at the same time as she said: "Deal."

"I have to go to sleep know though", Nelliel said as she started to go from the clearing. "Otherwise I will not survive tomorrow. I would recommend you going to sleep as well."

"I will", he told her at the same time as he started to walk towards the boys dorm.

When Nelliel managed to come back into her room she feel asleep the moment her head hit her pillow, but her dreams that night was really strange. She was dreaming about wandering in a land of ice. She herself was freezing very badly. Then she found an orange haired boy who embraced her. The embrace warmed her and made her feel warm and alive.

* * *

**Well I hope you guys liked this chapter. Review, review and tell me if you liked it and if you did what you liked about it. If you did not like it please tell me that as well, just give me a reason to why. Just please no flames, constructive criticism is very welcome though:)**

**Also nobody have guessed which pairings I am using so far. Am I really that bad at hinting at it? Doesn't any of you have the smallest guess? If you have please tell me^-^**

**I guess I will see you guys next week, the only thing I have left to say is REVIEW. I have a lot in school and your reviews motivate me and keep me going, at the same time as the make my day:)**

**SO REVIEW and tell me whatever you want333**


	9. Chapter 8: the truth is out

**I'm really sorry for getting this out so late guys:( my life has been messing with me. I have been getting my somewhat annual cold, I always seem to get on one the autumn:( And when I get a cold I usually get killing headaches. This time was not an exception. I have a really hard time writing when I my head is sort of killing me. Plus since I have missed a few days of school I have had a lot more schoolwork to do than usual. That is my excuse of why this chapter is so late and sadly chapters may come out irregular like this for a short while, since we have both a big project in school that I need to work on, plus I'm still sick.**

**Well I do have to say I few thinks about this chapter as well. Some parts of this chapter was wonderful to write:), and sorta easy, other parts were pure terror, meaning really hard to write. So I hope you guys enjoy this late chapter and please leave a review^-^ You guys opinions will be like an amazing light in my current sick and school worried state.**

**The last thing that I need to say about this chapter is sort of important, after this chapter we will actually see a short time skip, which makes me really excited:)  
**

**Disclaimer: I own Bleach! I soo own Bleach:) *Wakes up from good dream* Oh, I have to tell you the sad truth that I don't own Bleach.*tries to go back to sleep* I really wanna own Bleach^^**

* * *

When Orihime woke up that morning she had been feeling worried. She had been worried about Ichigo. She did not want to see him like he had been yesterday, because she just didn't know what to say to him and she couldn't stand to see him like that. It was so unlike him and did not fit him at all.

Luckily though she had been worrying needlessly since he apparently was fine. When she and Nelliel met the guys at breakfast he had been acting like his usual self. She had even been told how he had apologized to Chad both for hurting him and being a jerk yesterday. She couldn't understand how he had pulled himself out of his depression so fast. It probably just needed a nights sleep, she thought to herself with a smile. She was so happy to see him acting like himself that she didn't bother looking for a reason of why he was better.

Chad also seemed alright. You couldn't find a trace of the wounds from yesterday and he said he felt as good as ever. That did not really surprise her though, as Chad had always had a tough body. Chad had even said how he wished he could participate in the practical lessons, sadly the nurse had forbidden him from doing it today but told him he could participate tomorrow if he felt good enough.

* * *

After eating breakfast they had quickly proceeded to their hoho lesson. In the theory lesson they had been told what they should think about when they tried to use Shunpo for their first time. They had been told that they were going to be taught the first shunpo steps this practical lesson.

When the practical lesson had started Orihime had quickly realized that it wasn't as hard as the teacher had claimed. It was actually quite simple. All of her six friends seemed to agree with her, as all of them had managed to successfully use the shunpo steps at the lesson. The teacher had become really surprised since he had told them that it usually took the student two-three weeks to learn it.

Right now though, they were eating. They were sitting down at their table eating lunch at the same time as talking to each other.

"I thought hoho would be a lot harder then it was", Orihime said to her six friends. "It wasn't as hard as the teacher said, not at all."

"You need to have more confidence in yourself", Ichigo said not sounding to happy with what she had said. "Confidence is important."

"She didn't say that she didn't have any confidence Ichigo", Nelliel clearly disagreed with him. "She only said that she thought it would be harder than it was since the teacher said so. I also thought that it would be harder."

"Exactly", Uluquiorra said for once he was actually participating in the conversation. It might just have been that he saw a chance to pick on Ichigo, since that seemed to be one of his favorite things to do. "You should think more before you talk. Both about what the person you are answering said and about what you yourself is saying."

"But confidence is important", Ichigo said in a disgruntled tone not wanting to back down.

"Anyway", Uryuu said actually saving Ichigo from being verbally beaten. That almost never happened since Uryuu almost always was one of those who liked to pick on him. "Did you see how the other students struggled with the shunpo steps and how surprised our teacher was when we managed to do it successfully. I actually don't think that he exaggerated when he said how hard it was. I think we managed to do it abnormally fast."

"That's just because we are talented", Grimmjow said in a self confident voice. "Haven't you guys noticed that. We seven were picked out to be taught by Unohana. We think all of the practical lessons are pretty simple and our abilities are far above most of are classmates even though we are in the advanced class. We obviously have more potential than th rest."

"Maybe, and maybe not", Chad said, even he was participating in the conversation and he was almost always quiet. "We were told that we were taught by Unohana since we might be a danger to our classmates otherwise. Maybe the seven of us just have very bad control of our reiatsu." Before anyone had the chance to interrupt him he quickly continued. "Or maybe it is as you say Grimmjow. Even if Grimmjow is right though I don't think we should let it go to our heads." Chad almost never spoke so much and this made everyone think carefully about what he had said.

"You are probably right", Uryuu was the first one to answer. "After the kido lesson yesterday and this hoho lesson I felt a bit superior to our other classmates and I guess that is not very good."

"Well no matter what we really need to go now", Nelliel interrupted the conversation. "Otherwise we will be late for the hakuda lesson and that will definitely not be a good way to show that we are taking the lessons seriously." The seven of them rose from the from the table and started to walk towards the classroom.

"I still think we are talented and have great potential", Grimmjow mumbled under his breath. "I do."

* * *

Ichigo hated theory lessons, he truly did. They were boring, long and you were supposed to remember them. He had heard that you were supposed to write a written exam before you graduated, where they would test you on everything you had learned for the six years you had gone to school. It sounded like they wanted to kill the students. This is a military school for gods sake, Ichigo thought to himself.

So when the theory hakuda lesson ended and they would have their first practical hakuda lesson Ichigo felt like jumping with joy. He would finally be out of that damn classroom and he would be allowed to move. His happiness did not last for all that long though.

When the practical lesson started they were told that they would be paired up two and two and that they were going to spar against each other, so the teacher could see a bit of what they could. When he heard who he was paired up with, memories that he would rather not think of surfaced.

Nell had been in his arms crying because of his stupidity and he had not even realized it until after she explained it. She had forced him to agree to a deal where the probability of him hurting her was huge. Now he was supposed to fight her again, like fate enjoyed having him hurt her.

"I guess this is my chance to show you what I got", Nelliel said with a smile to Ichigo when she walked up to him. "Don't hold back."

"...", Ichigo just did not have anything to say. He did not want to fight her, he did not even know if she had ever fought before.

"Are you ready", she asked him. When he did not answer she started to sprint towards him.

Fast, that was all his brain had time to register before she was before him ready to hit. If not for his instincts making his body move out of the way she would have hit. Instead she barley missed. Then he registered what had just happened. She could fight, she had done this before.

"Ichigo I thought I told you to not hold back", Nelliel told him and her voice sounded pretty annoyed.

"Nelliel where are you from", Ichigo asked completely changing the topic of the conversation. "Are you from the outer districts?" He did not know if it was a very smart thing to ask, but he had to. He did not think she would be one of those who got offend by being asked something like that.

"So you are wondering where I learned how to fight", Nelliel answered with a smile on her face. "Your right I am from the outer districts so please take this fight serious. Maybe this will make you understand that I am not so fragile and make you realize that I could handle training with you. Now lets start from the beginning." Ichigo did not have time to register everything before she started to walk back to her original starting position.

"Let's start", she said looking at his face for confirmation.

Just think about it as sparring with Orihime, Ichigo told himself. Or one of your other friends. This is not different from that and be serious since she want that. He nodded in confirmation. He would fight her, or spar, seriously.

Once again she began running towards him, but this time he was ready. When she was before him she pulled her hand back and punched. The punch was fast and strong. It was not fast enough though since Ichigo caught it in his hands. Then he twisted her arm at the same time as she tried to sweep him of his feet with a low kick. Her kick made him stumble and thus realizing her arm. She jumped back.

This time Ichigo ran towards her with the intention to attack. He pulled a fast punch towards her stomach. She took a fast step back so that his fist never reached her. She brought up her leg to kick him in the ribs. Her kick was to fast to avoid, so he lifted his leg so that she kicked his shin. At the same time as she hit his leg he pushed her back with the hand that she was still blocking.

His leg seriously hurt. He knew that it would have hurt more to get kicked in the ribs but that did not make the pain any better. He also realized that she was really good. He needed to step his game up a bit.

He waited for her to attack, since he had enough skill to make an counter attack. When she came up before him, ready to punch he did not give her the chance. Instead he sent a quick punch towards her face. She blocked it with one of her hands. That just happened to be his goal though.

As soon as she caught his hand his other hand went towards her with a serious speed. This she could not block. Instead she managed to take a fast step to the side, without letting go of the hand he had first punched with. When she took the step to the side though, he just the same time of low kick that she had used to sweep him of his feet before. The only difference this time was that he managed to make her lose balance.

Nelliel started to fall towards the floor, but since she was still holding Ichigo's hand she was dragging him down with her. He tried to get his hand free, but he was not in a position were he could use all his strength, and she was holding him pretty hard. The result was that Nelliel fell down on the floor, with Ichigo over her in a rather embarrassing way.

Ichigo though, he didn't really notice as other things were running through his head. He was looking her right in the eye and he realized how pretty her hazel eyes were. They were big and they were looking straight at him. Together with her pink tattoo and turquoise her it gave her a really mesmerizing look. He did not understand how he could have missed it before.

"Ichigo", she said to him trying to get his attention. When she said his name he snapped out of his daydreaming and realized in what kind of position they were in. He hurried of her and when he stood up, he gave her a hand helping her up.

"I'm really sorry, I just...", Ichigo said as an apology to Nell. "I don't know what happened I froze." Just thinking about it made him feel all embarrassed and his face become a light red color, as if he was blushing.

"Ichigo are everything alright", Nelliel asked wondering if he was okay.

"Of course", he said at the same time as he started to scowl even more than usual. He just wanted the damn blush to get of his face. "Let's continue."

* * *

The rest of that week passed without anything special happening. They had two more lessons on the four combat subjects, one theoretical and one practical each, they also had two double lessons on the Soul Society subject were they learned more about Soul Society.

The Friday finished with just such a lesson. That was the reason as to why Ichigo and Nelliel had decided to have their first training pass today, since they had a lot of energy to spare. When Ichigo finished eating dinner he excused himself from his friends.

"Where are you going Ichigo", Orihime asked in a curious tone.

"I'm just gonna train a bit", he answered.

"Can I come", Grimmjow asked excitement written all over his face. "We could always spar you know."

"No, not this time", Ichigo answered a bit annoyed but he knew that he should have expected this. "I think I am gonna train alone for once."

"I know why", Uryuu said at the same time as he tried to keep from laughing. "He is to embarrassed. He doesn't want anyone see him failing kido over and over again. That is what you are doing right? Practicing your kido, that everyone knows need practice even though we have only had two lessons."

Ichigo did not answer. Instead he just walked away, choosing to ignore Uryuu's comments.

"Well I think I'm going meditating", Nelliel said at the same time as Ichigo walked away.

"You too", Orihime asked in a surprised voice. Nelliel just nodded as a response.

"Then I might just as well meditate too", Uluquiorra opened his mouth to say something for the first time this dinner.

"So we are all going to train, huh", Uryuu said to himself. "I guess that's not a very bad idea."

"The whole afternoon was theoretical, it is smart to train now when you have the energy", Chad said giving everyone a piece of his thoughts.

"Then I guess I'll get going", Nell said with a smile. "I don't want anyone to take the best meditation spot. See you later Orihime and I'll see you other guys tomorrow." Then she walked of. The only thing was that she was not walking to meditate alone like the other's were she was going to go to Ichigo and train with him.

As she walked of she heard Grimmjow say: "Doesn't anyone wanna spar with me? I mean that's training too."

As she walked to the place where she had found him training alone the day he hurt Chad, that was the place they had decided to meet up at, she saw how he was once more practicing to hold floating balls of reiatsu balls in his hand. His hand was not burned, like it had been last time she saw him do this, but it still looked hurt.

"Ichigo, weren't we supposed to practice together", Nelliel asked him a bit worried that he had forgotten everything they decided.

"Of course we were", Ichigo said. "I just thought I should start, I mean I didn't know how long it would take for you to get away from the others." He finished with a small smile.

"Yeah, yeah", Nelliel laughed. "So shall we start. Try to do Sai on me."

"You sure", Ichigo asked his tone turning serious. "You know what could happen. Have you really thought this through?"

"Of course I have", Nelliel answered her voice serious as well. "I am not stupid. So lets start now."

Ichigo did not wish to fight with her and he did not wish to be disrespectful, so he choose to obey her wish. It was easier said then done though. The first few times he tried he could not even manage to send the kido spell at her.

Once more he started to gather some of his reiatsu, he made sure not to take to much. Then he started to chant.

"Sai", he finished with a scream and this time he felt it. He felt the same way he had felt when he managed to cast the kido on Chad. He knew he would succeed this time. I won't hurt her, I won't, he kept telling himself. So he fought down the amount of reiatsu that wanted to leave his body through the kido spell. Only a thin sliver of reiatsu left his body.

* * *

Nelliel saw him starting to try the kido spell once more. This time she could feel him gather his reiatsu once more, but this time it felt different. It felt more like it should. This time he would succeed. He had still gathered to much reiatsu though, way to much. It was not as much as when he had cast the kido on Chad, but still so much that it could hurt her. She was ready though. She started to gather some reiatsu around her, she let her reiatsu seep out of her at a higher rate than before. This way she had more defense.

The kido left Ichigo and came to Nelliel. It smacked into the reiatsu around her, going past all her defenses and tying her arms around her back. It did not hurt, but it was certainly not comfortable.

"You can release it now Ichigo", she said with a smile towards him. He had managed to cast it quite successfully. He had still used to much reiatsu, if it had not been for her small defense she would have gotten hurt, but it was much better than before.

"I didn't hurt you, did I", he asked her with worry at the same time as he released the binding.

"No, I'm fine", she answered with a small laugh. "Let's try it once more, but use even less reiatsu this time."

"Even less?", Ichigo screamed. "That's freaking impossible. I almost used no reiatsu at all."

"But you are supposed to use even less", Nelliel tried to say through her laughter. This would be a long training session.

* * *

At the same time this day a man arrived outside the Kuchiki manor. The man was wearing a standard shihakusho, but on his back rested a captain haori with a three on it. When people passed by they immediately recognized him because haori, in their eyes he was the new, and young, taicho of the third division.

The man stood there, waiting. Time passed but he never moved from his position. The people who passed by saw a calm, young and successful man waiting for somebody from the Kuchiki clan. If somebody who knew the young man had passed by though , they would immediately have been able to tell that he was nervous.

Since the man became a taicho he had became a calmer and more controlled person. He had especially become better at hiding his emotions. But from the way his hands clenched and unclenched, the way his brows furrowed and just because his whole body language screamed nervous anyone of his friends would be able to tell that he was nervous. Just because his face was calm did not mean he was calm.

When he had stood out there waiting for about half an hour a young woman walked out of the Kuchiki mansion, going towards him. The woman had short black hair and even she wore a shihakusho. She had no haori though, instead the lieutenant badge from the 13th division sat on her arm. They were both high ranking seats of the 13 protective squads.

"Have you been waiting for a long time", she asked him in a friendly voice.

"No not at all", he answered in a grumpy and sarcastic voice. "I just was hear at the meeting time, not knowing that you had decided to be thirty minutes late."

"Fool", she said with a small laugh as she smacked him lightly on the head. "I did not decide to be thirty minutes late, I just was. I am a woman for god's sake."

"So that makes it right for you to be late", he asked in an incredulous voice even. He knew the answer though, they had had this discussion many times before.

"Of course", she answered with a smug smile as she nodded.

"Women", he muttered to himself, but she just laughed.

They fell into a comfortable silence walking together towards their destination. Before long they arrived outside of a cozy looking little restaurant.

"Aww", the woman squealed. "So this was the place you were taking me to."

"Do you like the idea, Rukia", the man said. Her name was almost sounded like a caress coming from him.

"Of course", Rukia said with small laugh. "I mean this where were we had our first date after all. That time you choose it becuase of your situation with money and not because you thought it would be romantic right? I mean your wallet is not the best."

"Tch", the men responded to her words. "What are we waiting for? Let's go."

Once more they began walking, this the Rukia slipped her arm around her date's, so that they were now walking arm in arm. When they were inside a server came up towards them. When the server saw who his customers was he immediately got nervous.

"I am ve... very sorry", he stammered. "But we are full. We have no seats left."

"I have two seats by window reserved" the man answered. "The name is Abarai Renji."

* * *

"Renji I can't believe that you managed to get just this seats", Rukia said after the food arrived. "This is the exact place we sat on our first date."

"I know Rukia", he said in a husky voice. "I thought you would like it."

"You fool", she murmured slapping him on his head. She used quite some force, but since he was long since used to it he did not mind. "Of course I would." A faint red colored her cheeks. "I just did not know that you had a romantic streak in you."

Renji just laughed as a response as he looked at her. Rukia was his treasure. He had always loved her and now she even seemed to have feelings for him. That just made everything so much harder, he wanted to just forget and continue this dinner as a normal date. He knew that he had to tell her though. He owed both Rukia and that guy that much.

"Rukia I have to tell you something", he said as he looked her in the eyes. His voice no longer sounded flirty, instead it was dead serous. He would not back out, he told himself. He would do this.

"I should have told you this before", he said quietly. "But I wanted to tell you it like this. When it was just you and me. Can you forgive me?"

"Of course Renji", Rukia said, her voice serious as well. "I mean you probably have a good reason for it. So please tell me what you have to.

Renji took a deep breath. He needed to do this. He owed Ichigo that much. "I heard a rumor about Ichigo being seen." He could see that she was shocked in the way her eyes widened and how she dropped the knife and fork down on the plate.

"What are you saying", she mumbled, feeling numb. "I thought we decided not to talk about such rumors, that we should not get our hopes up." At the end she was almost yelling at him. "I thought we decided that."

"I know we did Rukia", Renji said calmly, waiting for her to calm down until he dropped the next bombshell on her.

"Then why", she asked having managed to calm herself already. She knew Renji. She knew that he would not just bring up something like this without a point to it. There was more coming. She did not dare to get her hopes up, they had already been crushed to many times.

"The rumor originate from Iba this time", he said watching her carefully. "He told me when I was out drinking last Sunday."

Rukia did not have enough energy to get mad at him for sneaking out to drink. She did not have enough energy to do anything really. All she could do was listen. When Renji saw the way she looked at him he continued and told her the whole story. Told her how Iba had found the huge hollow and the four people he had found with it. Renji told her everything.

When he finished he looked at her carefully, waiting to see a reaction. He knew that this could be the breaking point. He knew that this might very well be their last date. His entire being hoped that it would not.

"It might be a coincidence", Rukia mumbled weakly after Renji finished. "It just might."

"That's not possible", Renji said in a decisive tone. He had been thinking about this since Iba had told him and this time it could not be a coincidence. To much seemed to fit for it to be a coincidence. "He saw Ichigo, Orihime, Ishida and Chad together. It can't be a coincidence." This time it had to be true, it had to be them. He did not know if he wanted to laugh or cry.

Time passed but Rukia didn't say anything. She didn't move, she did nothing. All she did was stare out into a nothingness, looking shocked. Renji soon realized that he would have to be the first one to speak.

"So, what do you wanna do", he asked her silently. "What do you think about all this?" He asked her carefully. This was what he had been thinking about the whole time since Iba told him about Ichigo. What would Rukia do and what would she think?

"I don't know Renji", Rukia mumbled, still to shocked to talk normally. "I don't know what to do, what to think. In my heart I thought that we would never see them again ... I don't know what I am supposed to do."

"I understand Rukia", Renji said caressing her arms. He wanted to comfort her but she was sitting at the opposite side of the table. All he could do was touch her arms, to show her that he was there for her. More time passed until Rukia once more opened her arms.

"Thank you for telling me Renji", she said softly and caring. "I really appreciate it."

"Your not mad for me not telling you earlier", he asked thankful that she didn't seem mad.

"Of course not", she answered and even laughed a bit. "I think it was better to tell me it like this, with just you and me. I don't know how I would have handled it otherwise."

Once more they fell into silence. Both of them just did not know what to say. What could they say.

"Shall we go", Rukia asked Renji not feeling hungry anymore. Her food had turned cold anyway. Renji just nodded. He soon payed and then they left. He started to walk her home like he always did and when they were walking like that in silence Renji just had to ask her again. He had to know her answer.

"So are you going to do anything", he asked her again.

"Do what", Rukia responded feeling a little bit annoyed and helpless. "If what Iba said is true they are in the shinigami academy and you know that we are not allowed to enter it as we please. All we can do is wait to see if it is true and we will have to wait until they graduate." That wasn't what Renji had meant though. He already knew what Rukia just told him. What he had wanted to ask was something else.

"What about us", it just slipped out of his mouth, he had not meant to say it. That had been what he had been wondering about though. What would happen to them now?

First Rukia did not understand what he was asking. Then she managed to puzzle the bits together and understood.

"You didn't, did you", she screamed at him her temper taking control of her. She grabbed his shirt and started to shake her finger underneath his nose. "Did you think I would leave you because of this? Did you really think so little of me?"

"It's not that Rukia", Renji tried to explain himself. "It wasn't like that..."

"It wasn't like what", Rukia interrupted him. "It was just like that, don't try to lie. I can't believe you would think that little of we after all we have been through together."

"Alright, it was like that", Renji admitted now angry as well. "You have to understand why I would think like that. After... you know... I mean... Ichigo. You can't deny that there was something there."

Rukia didn't know id she wanted to laugh or cry. She should have seen this coming, and she shouldn't have been mad at him for it. She sighed deeply. "That won't happen", she said a sad smile gracing her lips. "Nothing will change between us, I swear."

Renji looked at her and was once more filled with love. She had chosen him. Over Ichigo she had chosen him. He felt himself going numb, he had never dared hope to see this day.

Inside Rukia though a small seed of doubt was growing. Had she really meant what she had said, had it truly been true.

* * *

**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter and I hope that I surprised you^-^ Review and tell me if I did. **

**So does anybody feel ready to guess what pairing I'm using? I think I have actually been hinting at it for a bit, so guess and guess. So far I have only gotten one guess *pouting* I wanna see more of you guys guess so I can make my pairings official and put them in the summary and instead of just having Ichigo as my character I can put the girl I'm pairing him up with:)**

**So come on REVIEW! And if you don't have any idea of which pairings I'm gonna use, just leave a review telling me what you thought about the chapter or something, that will make me just as happy. **

**Until last time:) I will try to make that soon^^**


	10. Chapter 9: a new vice captain

**Well I'm finally back and I have to say that I'm really sorry that I haven't been able to update earlier:( There are a couple of reasons as to why this chapter is so late, the major ones are that I have been sick with ponding headaches, and have thus not have any energy to write or think at all. I have also had a lot of homework to do now in the end of the semester, because the teachers are supposed to set our grades and stuff. Plus I have sort of had a writers block. All in all it's not really a good combination. **

**I think I'm gonna be able to start updating pretty regular now though, since it's soon christmas break and all, which will give me plenty of time to write I hope:) So thanks for supporting this story so far and I hope you enjoy and review this very late but long chapter.**

**Disclaimer: I don't own bleach at all, if I did the last chapter would probably not had been so awesome. I love bleach right now!**

* * *

The day was the second december, the first sunday in december. About three months had passed since Ichigo and his friends entered the shinigami academy and they had long since started to get used to their life there. Overall they liked it here.

What they had soon noticed though, was that the seven of them were not like other students. They were, as Grimmjow had said, much more talented. They had completed all tasks the teachers had given them at an incredible speed and as the teachers always did when they had especially talented students they moved them up, to higher classes. The only one who was still studying one of the four center subjects with the first years was Ichigo. Even though Ichigo had managed to improve a lot in his Kido, thanks to his and Nelliels training, he had still not been able become good enough to be moved a class up.

Yesterday they had went to their second normal meditation lesson, because last week Unohana-taichio had told them that her special lessons were no longer necessary. All seven of them had managed to achieve enough control to not harm themselves or anyone around them. She warned them that they would still need to be careful, and if anything really bad happened they might have to go back to being taught by her again. Hopefully nothing like that would happen though, she had told them in a warning tone.

That had made their Saturday pretty unusual, but this Sunday would be just as unusual. On normal Sundays the seven of them sometimes ventured into Seretei, looking around, other times they just stayed at the school to chat or train. Mostly they just relaxed and did whatever they wanted, since it was the only day that was their free day. Sadly they usually had to do some homework though. They had even more homework than ordinary students because of them being moved up.

This Sunday though, something special was happening at the school. A young girl who had just become the vice captain of the ninth squad was holding a speech at the school. It was something that every student at the entire school was going to and they all thought it had the potential of being really interesting.

* * *

The young girl who had just been given the position of vice captain of the ninth squad was sitting at the couch in the ninths squads office waiting for her captain. The two of them were soon going to leave for the academy, which she had not visited since her sister graduated.

This time though she was going to hold a speech, for the entire school. She was not somebody that was easily scared and she would do this, she would stake her pride on it. The only thing was that she had another problem besides talking in front of a bunch of people and that problem could be summarized into one sentence: The rumors about Ichigo and his friends going to the school.

A man opened the door, walked into the office and interrupted her thoughts. The man wore ordinary shinigami robs, but he had an captains haoir over it. He was the captain of the ninth squad.

"Kurosaki-fukotaicho are you ready", he asked the girl in a friendly tone.

"Of course Hisagi-taicho", the girl answered. "I'm ready."

While she and Hisagi-taicho shunpoed to the academy grounds she could not stop the thought from swirling around her head. Maybe, maybe, just maybe she would see Ichigo today. If she did she would see him for her first time in 10 years. For ten fucking years had she looked for him, hoping to find him, but for no point. Her hope of ever seeing him again had almost been crushed into nothing, and she did not know if she dared to hope this time.

At the same time she was worried. What if, if he was really there. What was she supposed to do? According to the piece of information that her father never told her that day when Ichigo died you lost all your memories of your life when you were alive when you died. Ichigo had obviously done so to, since otherwise he would have just been able to go to Soul Society and be recognized. If he had she would have met him long since.

What the hell am I supposed to do? The thought would not leave her head, she could not get it away because she really did not know the answer to it. There was no one she could ask either, no one who could help her. She did not feel like talking to her idiot of a father, she did not want to worry her sister and she definitely did not want to bother anyone else. She knew that she would be able to talk to him if she felt like it. He would listen to her if she felt like talking to him, but he was the one she wanted to talk to least of all. She hated the thought of him seeing her all weak like this. She hated it.

She and Hisagi-taicho soon arrived at the academy grounds and she snapped out of her thoughts. This was it. She would have to concentrate to have a good speech, which she had to have, but at the same time she had to look around to see if she could find that orange head of hair that could only belong to her brother.

* * *

When it was time Hisagi-taicho was the first one to talk and that gave her time to look for him. Her eyes swept over the crowd, looking for a spot of orange hair. It did not take her long to it. Her brothers light hair stood out from the crowd, confirming her suspicion. He was here. She was finally seeing her brother again.

She wanted to run down to him, to hug him, to scream at him, but most of all she felt like talking to him. It didn't work that way though, she already knew that but it frustrated her so much. He would not remember her, he would not have any idea of who she was. At least he is alright she tried to tell herself, at least he is fine.

She heard how Hisagi-taicho finished talking and knew that it was her turn. Before starting she took one more look at his brother and the friends around him. It seemed as if he had come to the same place as his three friends as she could see both Inoue, Ishida and Chad. He also seemed to have found some new friends, as she saw three other people talking to him, people that she did not recognize.

She took a deep breath and pushed Ichigo out of her mind, she needed to concentrate now. This would go well. She took one more deep breath and then she began talking.

"Hi everyone", she began. "I am Kurosaki Karin, the new fukotaicho of the ninth squad."

* * *

"That was pretty interesting", Nelliel told her friends a while after Kurosaki-fukotaicho had finished her speech. The seven of them had gathered in a clearing to hang out with each other. They were supposed to do there homework, but for now they were only chatting.

"Her speech I mean", Nelliel continued when she saw the way they looked at her. "This was my first time seeing a Kurosaki, even though they are pretty famous."

"They are famous", Ichigo asked. He had heard that last name before, but he could not remember from were, it was escaping him. He was getting a bad feeling from all this: The name that felt uncomfortably familiar even though he had never heard it, the way the girl had looked at him, plus an strange feeling in his gut.

"I've also heard that name before", Uryuu said. "I heard some people on campus talk about somebody named Kurosaki, but I didn't know it was a famous name. Do any of you know?"

"Of course we do", Orihime said and laughed. "One time when I was talking with Nelliel, she began gossiping and mentioned the name Kurosaki. When I told her I had no idea of who Kurosaki was, she got so shocked and immediately told me. I think you three are the only one who doesn't know who the Kurosaki family are." She looked at her three male friends Ichigo, Uryuu and Chad.

"You know who they are Grimmjow", Ichigo asked surprised that everyone seemed to know who they were. He couldn't help but wonder if Grimmjow was just as oblivious as he was, since Grimmjow didn't seem interested in anything but fighting.

"I know a bit", he answered in a gruff tone. "I have heard that they are supposed to be an extremely talented family and very good at fighting."

"Well I'll tell you all about them", Nelliel said. Nelliel couldn't stand seeing people not knowing anything about what was happening around them, plus she loved gossiping.

"Thanks Nell", Ichigo said before she had time to start talking. Maybe if she told him all she knew he might realize why he seemed to recognize that name, he thought to himself. He could always hope.

"You welcome", she answered Ichigo in a playful tone. "Anyway the Kurosaki family is a famous family because of the older brother in this family. He and three human friends played an important role in the war against the arrancar and Aizen. Only a few people know how they look and what their names are, since it became forbidden to talk about after the war. There are only rumors. So I don't know a lot about what happened in that war, but I think we are gonna learn more about that in school. Anyway I know that he was the one that finally defeated Aizen and there are rumors that say that the war would never have been won if he and his friends never participated. Anyway it's said that at the price for defeating Aizen the Kurosaki brother lost all his powers. Two or three years later, I don't really know, he and his four friends died and went to Soul Society. The four of them has never been found though, but there are still people who are searching for them. Anyway the Kurosaki family moved to Soul Society about eight years ago I think, and I don't really know why. The two girls in the family began in the shingami academy and they apparently had extreme potential, especially this Kurosaki Karin. As we heard before Kurosaki Karin managed to graduate in three years, which is very rare, her sister Kurosaki Yuza graduated in four years. That is not as rare as graduating in two years of course, but it's still pretty rare. Their father was apparently a shingami captain before he somehow stayed in the mortal world were he married a human woman and had children, so when he came back he was offered to become captain over the fifth squad, since they desperately needed a captain. The woman he married and the mother in the Kurosaki family is said to be dead so the three of them are the only ones living in Seretei. I think that's the most important stuff."

"Wow", Orihime said. "You've told me this story ones before, but I still get so impressed every time I hear it. Cause just think about it, there was humans fighting more dangerous monsters than that hollow that almost killed us. I just think thats pretty unbelievable, and totally impressive."

"It sorta is", Ichigo admitted. He was also impressed after hearing that story, but at the same time it continued to give him a strange feeling in the gut. He felt like he had heard it before the same as with the name Kurosaki, like it was supposed to be familiar. He tried to pin it to the fact that they apparently was famous and that he had probably just heard somebody else talk about it. He could not shake the uncomfortable feeling of though.

"I wonder how hard it is to graduate in two years", Uryuu speculated. "At the same time I wonder how long it will take for us to graduate."

"I bet we could do it in two years if we wanted", Grimmjow exclaimed ready for the challenge. "Or are you guys to scared to try?" He continued when he saw that nobody looked ready to do it.

"Of course I'm not", Ichigo snapped back angrily jumping into the challenge. He would not back down, he would take the challenge and at the same time he might be able to forget about his gut screaming out to him if he concentrated on something else.

A little part about him could not help wonder if he would be able to do it though, with kido and all. Would he really be able to graduate the school in two years with his kido skills? "I'm on", Ichigo exclaimed. "It sounds interesting enough." He would just have to train, a lot. Which would serve his purpose just as well.

"Maybe it's for the good", Chad said with a thoughtful expression as he opened his face as he opened his mouth for the first time in this conversation. "We have just been going around with no goal and nothing. I think it would be good for us to take this challenge and get a goal. I'm in." Ichigo totally agreed with Chad. He needed a goal, something he could focus on.

"Well, then I'm definitely in to", Uryuu said with a small laugh.

"I guess we will have to take up the challenge to", Orihime said as she looked at Nelliel with a small smile.

"Of course we will", Nelliel answered pretty excited. "I'm always ready for a challenge and like Chad said, I would like to have a goal. So what about you Uluquiorra?"

"Of course I'm in", he answered in his always so empty tone.

"Sure about that", Grimmjow said and laughed not really thinking about what he was saying. "Are you really up to it?"

"Are you kidding me", Uluquiorra retorted sarcastically. "I think the possibility of you losing is a lot bigger, which would be very hilarious. Think if you are the only one not to graduate in two years, you the one who is so sure of himself. That would be sort of funny, no?"

Nelliel just could not stop herself from laughing. She had been hanging out with Uluquiorra for so long that she long since had gotten used to his sarcastic comments and this one was actually sort of funny.

"You stupid son of a bitch", Grimmjow screamed enraged. He was always easy to anger and no somebody was laughing at him thanks to this damn roommate of his. "You wanna fight me? Cause I sure as hell wanna fight you. Or are you to freaking scared?"

"I would not mi...", Uluquiorra did not have time to say more before Nell interrupted him.

"Grimmjow, Uluquiorra stop", Nelliel said before it had time to blow up. The two of them made as if to open their mouths, but Nelliel interrupted them. "I said stop. Don't step over the line." She looked both of them into the eyes, showing what would be in for them if they didn't listen.

Nelliel was no pushover. She was really good at fighting, maybe even more gifted than one of them. Plus Uluquiorra did not want to get her really mad, she was after all the only friend he had had through the years.

Uluquiorra inclined his head and nodded. When Grimmjow saw that Uluquiorra gave in it was as if all the fire left his body. "Fuck", he mumbled to himself.

"So let's graduate in two years", Orihime said trying to get the cheerful feeling back.

"Yes", everybody but Uluquiorra and Grimmjow screamed in response at the same time as Ichigo pressed the feeling out of his head. He would live in the now. Uluquiorra just nodded while Grimmjow just growled.

* * *

Karin looked around herself and realized that she had gone here anyway. She had not wanted to. He would listen to her though, which in truth was what she needed. She had to find someone that would listen to her and talk back. Someone that would come with smart ideas and maybe be able to solve her problem. And truth to be told, he was the only one that fit all the criteria.

She opened the door and looked around the very familiar room. He was sitting in the office chair, correcting documents as always. Plus Masomoto was not in the room. Karin did not dislike Masomoto in any kind of way, she actually rather liked the woman, but she knew that when Masomoto heard some interesting gossip the entire Seretei usually knew it soon. This was not something she wanted everyone to discuss.

He did not look up from his papers, probably concentrating so much that he did not see her. He should have sensed her presence though.

He must have a lot to do to not even notice my arrival, Karin thought to herself. Still she did not want to bother him so she sat down in the oh so familiar coach and thought back to the day and her problem.

She had held her speech and everything had been fine. She had been able to ignore Ichigo and the desperate feeling of wanting to meet him, of wanting to call out to him, scold him, hug him, interact with him and just be in his comforting presence again.

Then when she and Hisagi-taicho started to leave the school they passed straight by him. She had not been more than a meter from him and she had not been able to help looking at him. Well it had been more like staring.

She had stared at his back, he stood turned away from her talking to her friends. It had only been for a brief moment but her stare had been intense with longing and she knew that he had seen it. When she had readied herself to turn back and continue walking with Hisagi-taicho his gaze had wiped back and met hers. She had been overflown with all the emotions she had been trying to suppress and her eyes had watered, even though she never cried. She had made as if to take a step towards him, but then she had realized that his eyes was void of any recognition. He was no longer her Ichi-nii.

All of that had been known to her before, but it had hurt her in a way she could not explain. It felt almost as when her mother had died. The one knowledge that she would never meet Ichi-nii again. She would see an empty shell of him. A man having a similar personality and identical look to her brother, but it would not be her brother. He would have no memories of her, of his earlier life or what he had valued the most. Nothing that made him her brother would be left but his blood and genes which was not what she had looked for. She had been looking for him for ten years and all she had found was an empty shell of his old self.

Somehow she had been able to walk out together with Hisagi-taicho, but then she had left by telling some messy excuse that she needed something somewhere. She had left flash stepping away, looking for an empty place. When she had found one she had cried for the first time in a very long time, because she did not cry. Then she had come here without really thinking about it. This was the place that felt most like home in the entire Seretei to her.

She looked up and realized that he was sitting beside her in the coach. She had not noticed him arriving, she had been to deep in thought. She looked into his eyes and for the first time she was aware of her appearance. Her hair was a mess, her eyes were bloodshot, her cheeks were puffed up and there was still tears dripping from her eyes. She looked like a mess, or like a young girl who had been crying for a while and then arrived her to desperately seek for help. She could not stand him seeing her like this.

She rose from her seat and took one step towards the door then she did not come any farther. He grabbed her hand and dragged her back to him. Even though she had become strong, managing to become a vice captain, he was still stronger than her. He usually did not show it, but he used it whenever he felt necessary. Often she got mad when he did, but this time she didn't have enough energy to care.

He pulled her towards him, into his embrace. He did not try to say anything, he never opened his mouth. The two of them just sat like that, not moving at all. He was showing her that he was there for her, which he would always be. If she needed to talk to him he would be there, if she needed someone to listen he would be there, if she needed someone to help her he would be there and if he could help her in anyway he would always try. She knew all that but he wanted to show her again and again until she would completely trusted him and knew that he would always be there with a certainty.

"Do you want to talk now Karin", he said her name like a caress. She did not know how long they had sat there, it felt like forever at the same time as it felt like no time at all had passed. She felt so much better than before. Even though she could still feel the clouds hanging over her, she no longer felt as if she would drown.

"I'm waiting", he said waking her from her thoughts making her chuckle lightly.

"I was just thinking, sorry", she answered a small sad smile on her lips.

"No problem", he said looking into her eyes. "I'm waiting. I will listen when you feel ready to talk."

"Well you see", she said after a short while. "It's got to do with the rumor surrounding Ichigo." She didn't need to say more before she saw understanding flash through his eyes. That was one of the things she loved about him, he and she understood each other, she never needed to explain a lot because he always understood her.

"Is it true", he asked silently needing some sort of confirmation even though he was almost already sure. He knew that there was few things that would upset Karin this much, but this was a reason that would probably put her in the state that she was.

"Yeah", she nodded. The two of them just sat like that in silence. He was waiting for her to feel ready to talk and she was gathering herself.

"Toshiro", she said softly. "What should I do? I really don't know what would be right."

"I don't have a perfect answer Karin", he answered her just as softly. One of the other things she really liked about him as well was that he was always honest. He did not just say something to make her feel better, he told her the truth. "I can try to help you. We can work out an answer together, but I will never be able to tell you what answer is right and wrong. I can only tell you my opinion. So what do you think about it all Karin?"

"I sort of don't know Toshiro", Karin answered a tone of desperation creeping into her voice. "I just know that it hurts. When I look at Ichigo, I still don't see Ichinii. When I meet met him today I just started to think that maybe I would never meet Ichhinii again. Ichigo, yes him I know I will meet, but not my brother. I know he is still my brother but right know he doesn't remember anything. I don't want anyone else to share my pain, so I don't want to tell anyone else."

"Always thinking about others", Toshiro said lovingly. "In that perspective you're so much like your brother. There is another alternative though. Tell Ichigo the truth, with every highseated person from the 13 protective squads supporting you he will be forced to believe you."

"I know", she answered but said no more. A few minutes passed before she opened her mouth again. "I have already thought about that, but I don't want to do that to him. He has been living here for ten years. He will have already created a new life for himself here and he truly looked happy talking to his friends. When he was in the living world he didn't look happy very often. I don't want to take this new found happiness from him."

"I thought you would say that", Toshiro told her seriously. "I just wanted to make sure you had considered all the possibilities. From what I hear though you have already decided what to do, haven't you?"

"I think so", she answered him softly. "But I don't know if that is the right choice. At the same time I don't know what else I could possibly do. I guess I will have to wait. Even though I don't know if it's the right choice I think it's for the best."

"I think waiting is a noble choice Karin", Toshiro answered. "It would be better for everyone if he remembered himself, or if he realized who he was one his on. If you are lucky something might even trigger his memory. I mean almost no souls ever truly remember their life as living person, but he is not a normal soul. The fact that he knew a lot of people in Sertei, people he will meet sooner or later might give him a bigger chance at remembering all this. I think that the chance that something might trigger his memories are pretty big."

"Thanks Toshiro", she said smiling. "You truly made me feel better and what you said make sense to. I guess only the future can tell anyway. I'm glad I talked to you anyway."

"I'm glad you talked to me", he answered looking deep into her eyes. Then the two of them just sat like that comfortable in each other presence. Only one thought flew through her head. Maybe there was some good parts to all the bad stuff that had happened, because getting to know Toshiro better was definitely a plus.

* * *

When Ichigo went to sleep that night he had hoped, prayed to get an peaceful night of sleep. After this exhausting day he really needed it. He wanted a deep sleep without any sort of dreams. As all other nights though, nobody seemed to be listening. Once more he was hunted by the same dream. The dream had come on the night after they had trained with Unohana-taicho for the first time. Then it had kept coming with smaller and smaller intervals between it. This week the dream had been coming every night.

_It was dark around him, as it always was when he found himself in this particular place. There were huge shadows looming around him. He had still not been able to find out what the things that caused the shadows was. He only knew that they were humongous. They were probably the biggest things he had seen and he wondered what they would have looked like if he could see them clearly. _

_He started to walk around exploring the place. Wondering if he could find something new before the old man found him. The other times he had tried never found anything worth looking for, but since he had a small amount of time he might as well spend it on something that might become useful. _

_He did not have to walk around in the dark place for long before he heard the steps from the old man, so he stopped walking to wait him in. Neither the old man or this place really scared him anymore. With the lessons in the academy explaining about a full shinigamis powers he had soon realized what this place was. Somehow it was his inner world, and somehow the man walking towards him was his zanpakuto. There was something else that made him pray to be able to not come here. _

_"Ichigo", the old man said to him when he came into view. He did not have time to say anymore though because Ichigo interrupted him. _

_"Why did you bring me here again old man", Ichigo growled. "I thought I told you that I would need a proper night of sleep, and not a night of nightmares. Which I always get after I meet him." His tone got quieter and more desperate for ever word he said. When the word him touched his lips he was whispering, not wanting to say it too loud because he did not know if it could make him come here earlier. _

_"Ichigo I do not have time to argue with you", the man said in a hurried tone. "It seems as if he is late because of some reason. I will finally be able to tell you something of importance."_

_"Can you tell me your name", Ichigo asked hoping. None of his friends had achieved their zanpakuto yet, would he be the first?_

_"No", the man answered in a final tone not caring about the disappointment in Ichigos face. "That would just make him come here faster and your not ready for it anyway. There is one step before hearing the name."_

_"Materializing your zanpakuto", Ichigo guessed. He should have realized that. _

_"Yes exactly", the man said as he looked around himself as if he could pop up anytime. "If you manage to materialize me it should make the balance a little bit better here at least. I also know that you are already at the stage were you should be capable at doing it. You only have to mediate for real and really try."_

_Ichigo realized what he was hinting at. At yesterdays mediation lesson he had not really meditated the way he was supposed to, instead he had done the sort of control exercises that Unohana-taicho had taught them. He had convinced himself that they would be more useful since he dreamed himself here every night anyway. _

_"I'll do it next Saturday, when I'm supposed to", Ichigo answered not happy with the thought of having to come here more then he must. Not happy that he might have to meet him more often than necessary. "But then you have to give me at least some nights of sleep next week", he exclaimed._

_"I will try", the man answered not explaining. Then they stood there in silence. The two of them waiting in the inevitable. Ichigo could sense him getting closer, could sense his presence. _

_"What is he anyway", Ichigo asked trying to sound as matter-of-factly as possible. "I've never heard of anything like him in any lesson. Not even Unohana-taicho who taught us control told us to be ware of something like him. None of my friends seem to have someone like him either. _

_"It's a long story", the man answered not wanting to explain further. "Let's just say that he was almost the same as me from the beginning. Then something happened that separated us. Something made us able to exist here at the same time, when we before could only be one at a time here. Then he got more power for reasons I can't explain. If you managed to materialize..." The zanpakuto did not have time to say anything more as he was upon them. _

_He came from behind one of the buildings, tearing through the old man who vanished. Ichigo had seen the old man seemingly die before, but the man had always come back alive next time he dreamed. _

_There before him now stood the man of his nightmares. The man was identical to him, only made in black and white. There was another difference as well, where he was black, the man was white. It was as if all their colors had been swapped. _

_The man looked at him and a cackling laughter escaped from his mouth. _

_"... is wrong", he said in a voice that made Ichigo shudder. He also could not make out the first word he was saying. "I am not the one hindering you from hearing his name. It is once more your fear that is stopping your progress." For every word he said he took a steep closer. Ichigo tried to step back, but found himself frozen in place. _

_"You fear that I am also part of your true zanpakuto and you want to have anything to do with a monster like me", he finished cackling once more. He stood right in front of Ichigo right now, if one of them would straighten an arm out they could touch the other. Just the thought of it made Ichigo want to sick up. _

_When the man stood so close to him Ichigo could truly feel his powers, they were huge. Far bigger than anything he had ever sensed before. They were also malevolent, sinister and cruel feeling, they felt a bit like the hollow they had encountered. _

_"Why would I want to hold you back", he began to speak again. "I want to crush you, but there would be no fun in fighting you now. No fun at all..." _

The rest of the words muddled together since Ichigo finally had made himself wake up and get out of that world. It would take some time since he could get back to sleep again.

* * *

**I hope you like this chapter. Please stop by and leave a review to tell me what you thought about it, constructive criticism is always welcome. I would also love if you would like to leave suggestions or favorite parings you would like to be included. Since I have not completely decided the course of the story it is quite likely that I would use it:) **


	11. Chapter 10: the monster within

**Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! Since this is my first chapter since christmas and new year I want to wish you all a good new year. I hope that 2013 are going to be a really good year in every sort of way. I want to thank everyone that has supported this story so far and I hope you will continue to support it into this new year. And to those who have reviewed this story I want to give an extra thanks, if I have forgotten to thank one of you before, since I try to reply to every one of you, I am going to give you my thanks now. ^^**

**An extra thanks to: FeX, Zoe Whiteraven, Mangafan123, The Last Hatake, copycat15, Thunder Claw03, tomboy8888, Grimjaww, Guest, Zadenae, Lisa255, Blitzing Riptide, OutlawKnight, fancyfairy, rainbowrunner01, Fading to Black, naleah, jojo flamingo, La terrible La.  
**

**Thanks so much to all of you and to those of you who follow this story but haven't yet review I would love to see you guys review since it makes me very happy and motivates me a lot. I want everyone who are not a member of this site to know that guest reviews are also very welcome, I love all reviews. So if you don't have anything special to say, just leave a short review with anything:)**

**Disclaimer: Bleach isn't mine. If it was I would already know what would happen this year in bleach and what would the point in following it be then. **

* * *

When Ichigo awoke that morning he was feeling tired as hell. His sleep had been plagued by nightmares and almost all of them had contained **him**. He had awoken in the middle of the night, cold with sweat and feeling like someone had dragged his innards out from the inside and then thrust them back into his body without checking if they were on their right places. When he had woken up like that in he had crawled into the bathroom were he had started to throw up into the toilet. He was lucky that Ishida hadn't awoken even though he was a light sleeper.

The dream that had put Ichigo into this state was still clear in his mind and whenever he closed his eyes it began to hunt him once more.

_He had been laying on a bed in a room that he had never seen before, but at the same time he knew that this was his home. He had just been laying there and it had all been quite peaceful. _

_There had been one walking things, he did not know how to describe it. It didn't look like anything he had seen before. The thing had said something and he had said something back. Then the thing had left. He had not really noticed what had gone around himself, it was like he had been in the back of his own head. He had not really heard anything and he had no idea of what he himself had just said. _

_Then when he had laid there like that it was as if he had slowly began to surface. Slowly he had become aware of what was happening within him and all the feelings flowing through him. He was scared, terrified over something, but he could not put his finger on what. There was someone, someone inside of him, that wanted to hurt him and everything he cared for. He heard something, the monster inside of him was moving closer and closer to him. _

_A mask flashed before his eyes, it was white skull with four red slashed and looked something like the mask on a hollow. At this rate, he thought to himself when a voice interrupted him. The twisted voice filled with malice and cruelty made him realize who the monster within was. It was _**_him. _**

**_"'_**_At this rate' what", it asked him making him sit up in surprise, shock and fear. "Don't you think that you're a bit too scared, Ichigo? You're so easy to figure out. I'm going to scare you even more now. I'm going to draw closer and closer to you, but not just day by day. I'm gonna do it a lot faster now. I'm drawing closer to you now then I ever was before and at this rate I'm going to get even closer. I'm going to devour you and then you will disappear. At this rate things aren't looking to good for you."_

_A face flashed into his sight, a face identical to his only his hair was all white, the part that was usually white in a persons eye was black, and his iris was white. It made up a terrifying face. The face of an inner demon that kept hunting him. "See ya", it said and laughed a laugh of pure madness and destruction._

_Then a scene began to flash before him. Nell lying down breathing hard with numerous cut wounds over her body. She was lying in a pool of her own blood, she was very close to dying. He ran towards her, grabbed her and asked in a low voice who had done this to her. Inside he was boiling in fury. He would take revenge for Nell and kill the one who had done this to her. _

_She looked up into his eyes and he could see no happiness in seeing him and at the same time there were no trust in her eyes. There was only fear and blame. _

_"Why", she crocked out and became a lump in his arms. Her effort at speaking had taken her last bit of energy out of her and killed her. Her last piece of life had been used to ask him why he had done this to her. Why?_

_He felt a cold fear take hold of his body. The thought that he had done this to Nell. He turned his gaze away from her body and began to look around himself. All around him lay broken bodies of people he loved. Orihime lay sprawled under a tree, her limbs were twisted in unnatural ways. The tree had a dent in it, as if someone had violently thrown her at the tree, causing her to end up like that. Her gaze was void of any life, but at the same time he could her eyes looking at him, blaming him. Asking him why he had done this to her, because he knew that it was his fault. Something within him told him that with a certainty. _

_Ishida, Chad, Grimmjow and Uluquiorras bodies also laid dead. Their bodies had numerous wounds just the way Nell's had. It was as if they had fought someone who had overpowered them and then slaughtered them in cold blood. He had fought them and his sword had killed them. _

_Beside him lay a thin and white sword gleaming with the red blood from his friends. He knew that it was his sword, but at the same time it was something twisted with it. There was something off, but he could not tell what._

_When he started to look around himself again he saw more bodies. Bodies of people he didn't know, but because of some reason it made him feel just as terrible as his dead friends bodies. There was a small girl with black hair, her eyes shining with terror and recognition, a tall man with red hair in a ponytail with eyes shining in hatred and surprise and two young girls one with black hair and one with brown looking like sisters. More and more bodies just kept coming into his sight and for every body he saw he knew that he was the one that had brutally killed them. Every body hurt him deep inside, deep within his soul. _

_During the entire time he could hear a bone chilling laughter coming inside of him. A delighted laughter looking at all the death and destruction around him. It was _**_him, _**_his monster within. _

Just remembering the dream made Ichigo want to sick up again, leaving his body shaking and dripping in cold sweat. It was not that what he had seen terrified him so much, if it had only been a ordinary nightmare he would already have pushed into out of his head. It was the feeling of promotion, as if this was something that could happen in the future. It was the knowledge of what **he **would do if **he** ever took control over Ichigo's body. How Ichigo had murdered the people closest to him, the only people he cared about, and how that might happen in reality.

* * *

When Ichigo found himself in the dining hall, eating breakfast with his friends, he was feeling quite restless. His friends had noticed how he was not as talkative and friendly as he usual was, but they thought it better to leave him alone so that he could get it out of his system.

That mentality fitted Ichigo perfectly since he did not really want to talk with anyone right now. Every time he looked at one of his friends he saw their bloody corpses and knew that something within him might want to kill them if it got the chance. The only problem was that when they left him alone he did not get any chance to work of some of his agitation. Somewhere deep inside that made him happy, because he knew that if otherwise he might do something that he would regret, but he would love to get one of Grimmjows challenges. Of course Grimmjow never opens his mouth at the right time, Ichigo thought sarcastically to himself.

No, he decided. He would not involve himself in their discussions right now, he would just sit here quietly and try to calm down. He would not do something that he would regret later. He would not. At least that's what he tried to tell himself.

Then he saw how Orihime looked down, red in the face, from shame he assumed, casting glances at Uluquiorra and Ichigo realized that Uluquiorra had once more used his insulting nickname on Orihime. He had called her Onna, in that sarcastic insulting way of his. Without really thinking what else had been said and what he was about to say he threw himself into the conversation.

"What the hell do you think your doing", he growled clearly talking to Uluquiorra. The other people around him looked at him in shock, but they had all known that he was agitated about something. They had just not realized that he was this close to blowing up. "I've told you to quite calling her Onna, she has a name you know. It happens to be Orihime if you have forgotten."

"I have not forgotten since I have quite a lot better memory then you have", Uluquiorra answered in his always so neutral and annoying tone. "You seem to have forgotten that I have never agreed to stop though. Or maybe you're hallucinating." The last was finished with a sort of half smirk. It's the closest thing like a smile I've ever seen from him, Ichigo thought to himself, but he would not let something like that distract him. When he turned his focus back into the argument he did not realize that Orihime was actually talking and that he interrupted her.

"Calm down guys, I don't want...", then Orihime did not have time to say anything more because Ichigo opened his big mouth.

"I don't care if you don't wanna stop", he snarled glaring at Uluquiorra. "It is disrespectful and I think you should stop. If you know what's best for you." The last was added as an afterthought and it was spoken in a calculating threatening way.

"It's not like you are so much more respectful", Uluquiorra answered in mocking tone as if he saw something that Ichigo did not.

* * *

I don't want you to fight over something like that. I don't even really mind, Orihime finished to herself watching the guys spiting comments at each other. They really did not like each other. She didn't think they hated each other, like enemies did, but there was something between them. Rivalry maybe, she thought. She would have to talk to Nell about that later.

"Can't you speak without mocking or being sarcastic for once in your life", Ichigo screamed waking Orihime up from her daydreaming. Orihime was aware that she had a tendency to daydream at the worst places and at the worst times, but that was a part of her that she never thought she would be able to change. Of course she had a tendency to daydream at any place and at any time.

"Can't you stop screaming and speak like a civilized person", Uluquiorra answered once more in a mocking tone.

"Arg", Ichigo growled to frustrated to set his thoughts in words. Ichigo was literally shaking with barley suppressed rage and it made Orihime wonder what had happened to him. Something other than this must have put him in a bad temper because this would not be enough to send him over the top.

Ichigo abruptly rose from his seat. He sent a hateful glance at Ulquiorra but managed to suppress the building rage within him. He knew that it was thanks to his lack of sleep, he knew that he didn't really hate Ulquiorra and he didn't want to do something that he would regret later. He also happened to know that if he stayed in Ulquiorras presence much longer he would do something he would definitely regret.

He cast a glance towards Orihime and Nelleil and mumbled sorry then he stomped away. Orihime couldn't help but stare after him. What had put him on edge, she wondered.

"Do you know what's wrong with him Nell", she asked the only girl among her friends since she thought it much more likely that a girl had picked it up. Girls were after all way more aware at what happened around them than boys.

"No I have no idea", Nelliel answered sounding a bit annoyed. She was annoyed that she didn't have any idea what had put him in such a bad mood either. "He didn't seem to be in a bad mood yesterday."

"Do you guys know what made him so edgy", Nelliel asked Uryuu and Chad Ichigos roomate. "Maybe something happened in the morning or after he said good bye to us yesterday."

"He was like that this morning", Uryuu answered. "But not when he went to bed last night."

"Maybe he had a bad dream", Grimmjow said with a snicker. No matter what occasion Grimmjow would not pass up a chance of mocking somebody.

"Grimmjow", Nelliel said in an annoyed and protective tone. "An ordinary nightmare wouldn't put him on edge like that. Maybe you thought so because that would be your reaction towards a nightmare."

"Well he should calm down after a while", Chad said calmly at the same time as Grimmjow growled: "What did you say", towards Nelliel.

"Yeah", Nelliel answered Chad ignoring Grimmjow totally. "Leaving him alone is probably the best choice."

* * *

A few minutes before their Zanjutsu lesson began the six friends found themselves outside the Zanjutsu classroom for second graders. Ichigo had still not meet up with them. Orihime was beginning to feel worried that something serious had happened to him. Why wasn't he hear yet, she thought to herself.

Just as she was about to talk about her worries she saw the Zanjutsu teacher walking towards them and Ichiog was still nowhere in sight. The only thing that told her though, was that he was still upset. It did not help her figuring out what had made him this upset. She wanted to ask him, but she knew that he would probably say some bullshit like nothing happened. Guys never wanted you to worry about them.

"Ah, Ulquiorra. I need to talk to you", the teacher said when he arrived in front of Orihime and her friends. "I just meet up Ichigo on the way and told him that you two have been moved up to the third year class in Zanjutsu. He is already on his way. Do you no where the classroom is?"

"Yes", Ulquiorra answered. "I'll be going then." Then he just walked away like that. Not that Orihime had really expected him to say goodbye, he just wasn't that kind of person, but still. He could have acknowledged them or something. When she saw his back walking away from her she just couldn't help but feeling worried. Ichigo and Ulquiorra did not exactly get along perfectly, and Ichigo was already pissed of at him. She hoped that nothing serious would happen at the lesson.

"Nell", she said softly. "Do you think there is a chance of something happening on the lesson between them?" When she got no answer she looked at Nell and got a really surprise. Nell looked furious, she was quivering with smoldering rage and the glances she cast at the teacher could kill.

God, Orihime thought to herself. What had made Nell like this now, she was fine a few minutes ago. This day had not been a good day and she could not help but worry what would happen later if it had started this bad. She could only pray that there would be no disaster.

* * *

Ichigo and Ulquiorra listened to an entire theory lesson in Zanjutsu. The two of them sat together, but they did not say a word to the other. They were clearly still pissed at each other.

During the lesson Ichigo noticed that about half the class was carrying around swords, real swords. The students wore the swords at different ways, but most had them strapped to their waists. Ichigo had seen a few real swords in the second grade in Zanjutsu and had already then guessed that it was the persons materialized Zanpakuto. Here the majority had their own Zanpakutos though and that made Ichigo feel annoyed. If he was as talented as he had heard, he should be able to materialize his Zanoakuto. Maybe he would even try before this saturday.

When the theory lesson was finally finished Ichigo was feeling very restless, as always after a theory lesson. He really didn't like sitting down and listening to boring stuff. In his opinion you learned by doing stuff, not by hearing somebody talk about it.

Then the practical lesson finally started. Ichigo wondered if they were going to be taught a new sword technique or just spar, he had not expected both. The teacher first showed them a new technic where you used your shunpo together with your sword.

"Listen up guys", the man said. "I'm gonna divide you into pairs and then your gonna spar. I expect to see you guys to use some shunpo. Your third grades now, you should be able to combine your knowledge to fight as good as possible. I have showed this many times before and I want to see some improvement."

Ichigo and Ulquiorra got paired up, which didn't really surprise the two of them. Their new teacher probably wanted to pair the two of them up so he could see how good they were so he did not pair them up with anyone who was at a totally different level.

"Ulquiorra", Ichigo said silently looking him straight in the eye. "Are you prepared." The two of them held real swords since you apparently practiced with real swords in the third grade. The swords were heavier than Ichigo would have thought, but not heavier than he could handle.

"I'm ready", Ulquiorra answered shortly.

Ichigo didn't give Ulquiorra any more chance of preparing himself. At the same time as Ulquiorra finished talking Ichigo lunged forward with help of Shunpo. He appeared before Ulquiorra within a second. Then he slashed.

Ulquiorras sword got up in defense and when the swords meet the clang rang out over the entire room. The two of them were the only once who had already started.

Ulquiorras face was painted in shock. He had been prepared, but not that prepared. Ichigo never fought with his full ability when they sparred. It was called a spar when two people fought to train themselves and become better, not when you fought with hatred and a will to kill. And a will to kill there was.

"So you want a serious battle", Ulquiorra said silently so that only Ichigo heard. He did not want the teacher to hear since that would mean that the teacher would stop them before they had the chance to get serious.

"Don't you", Ichigo asked. "I'm not saying that we should fight 'til one of us are dead, only that we should fight with our full ability." Reiatsu started to seep out of Ichigo. When Unohana-taicho taught them about controlling their reiatsus one of the things she had taught them had been how to control how much reiatsu seeped out. She had said that at most times you tried to have as little reiatsu as possible seep out of you as possible because you wanted to conserve strength, plus you didn't want to be to obvious. When you were in a serious battle though, then you needed that reiatsu to seep out of you. You just needed to be on maximum power.

"I think that sounds great", Ulquiorra answered. "Let the best win." Reiatsu started to seep out from Ulquiorra to.

The students in the class stared at Ulquiorra and Ichigo as their reiatsu started to take form. The reiatsu started to form around the two of them like it just did on people with a lot of reiatsu to spare, it swirled around them threatening harm to anyone that came to close. The teacher stared at them in surprise, their reiatsus were very massive to belong to two students in the academy.

Ichigos reiatsu was blue with dark ripples in it. It felt protective and peaceful, but the dark ripples showed of a hidden darkness, madness. They felt hateful, sinister and cruel. Ulquiorras reiatsu was dark and it felt heavy, as if he wanted to suffocate somebody.

The two boys flashed towards each other and as their swords meet, their reiatsus slammed into each other. Ichigo was frowning, a determined expression on his face. Ulquiorras face was void of any emotion, as if the fight had swept away any little emotion that existed within the man.

The two of them flashed away from each other again, looking into each others eye. Waiting for the other to make a move. They were completely unaware of what happened around them.

The other students were looking at them in awe mixed with jealousy. Why were the guys who should belong in first grade this good, they all thought. That they were able to use shunpo in a fight without thinking almost made them green with jealousy, because that was what they were learning right now, learning and struggling with.

The teacher in the class was trying to get Ichigos and Ulquiorras attention, but they were to concentrated at each other.

Ulquiorra was looking at Ichigo with a patient expression, waiting for Ichigo to make a move. Ichigo knew that that was the smartest tactic, to wait for the opponent to attack, but he was to impatient. Ulquiorra looked like he could wait for days and Ichigo wanted - _blood_ - a fight. Now. So he sprang to attack.

Once more he flashed in front of Ulquiorra. They had not learned that much shunpo that they could use in battle so he could not do a lot of different moves. He knew that shinigamis were supposed to be able to stand in the air, sadly they had not been taught that yet. He knew that you were taught that in third grade hoho, but he was still in second grade with his friends. All this thoughts flew through his head in a mess, as he flashed to Ulquiorra.

He slashed an upper hand slash, and Ulquiorra calmly raised his sword. It was all a feint. With hyper speed Ichigo changed his slash towards Ulquiorras upper body.

The two swords clashed and reiatsu was pressed out from them. They didn't notice but their reiatsu was pressing down on the other students around them, threatening and hurting.

Ichigo pressed his sword forward forcing Ulquiorra back. All_ rage hate frustration hate _lay in his sword. It forced Ulquiorra to flash back. Ichigo just followed. He was the hunter. His prey was before him.

For every step he forced Ulquiorra back something rose within him. He didn't even notice it, he was that lost in - _his sea of emotions_ - the fight. His reiatsu became blacker and redder. It became crueler, angrier and more heavy. It felt like something that wanted to_ tear break destroy _everything it got it's hands on.

It pushed down on Ulquiorra, but he heightened his own reiatsu. He was forced to do so, even if it tired him out, because Ichigos reiatsu would crush him otherwise. Uluqiorra knew that he had to strike back.

When Ichigo lifted his sword to strike once again Ulquiorra moved. Ichigo attacked in a certain pattern and it was a pattern that Ulquiorra could predict. When Ichigo once more tired an upper hand slash towards Ulquiorras head he was prepared.

Ulquiorra dodged and tackled Ichigos feet. It resulted in Ichigo stumbeling.

That was all Ulquiorra needed. It was his turn to slash and so he did with a killer instinct. He did not hit as he had intended, but he still caused Ichigo the first bleeding wound from the fight. A tiny trail of red dripped down from Ichigos cheek. Ulquiorra did not have time to celebrate though.

Ichigos sword flew forward at striking speed. Luckily Ulquiorra sidestepped. If he had not Ulquiorras side would have been pierced by Ichigos sword. Instead he received a small bleeding wound, but it was still bigger than the one on Ichigos cheek.

Once more they stood apart, looking each other in the eye and waiting for the other to move. This time there was a more serious mood over it this time. They had both realized each others capability. There would be no more underestimation.

* * *

When Ulquiorra stood there, looking Ichigo in the eye he sensed how something began to change in the man. His reiatsu started to ripple and it became more and more violent. Then his eyes. The white in his eyes began to become contaminated, slowly becoming black. At the same time his irises turned shining white. Ulquiorra felt like he was facing a beast.

Once again Ichigo couldn't bear to wait. He flashed towards Ulquiorra. Ulquiorra would not let Ichigo push himself back again. If he did he had a feeling that he could become very hurt. He had never seen Ichigo like this before.

Before their swords could meet agin though a voice called out to them. It was powerful enough to break through their concentration. The voice demanded that they would stop their fight.

The two of them stopped and looked up to were the commanding voice came from. There were no students left in the room, even though the lesson hadn't ended yet. In the door opening their teacher stood, as if trying to take shelter.

Another man besides the two of them stood in their room and it was clear that the command had come from him. It was the principal for the school Kobayashi Daichi. Reiatsu was swirling around the man, as if he had been in a battle just as the two of them.

When Ichigos concentration on the fight was interrupted he felt like he awoke. All the hatred and rage that had been swirling around disappeared and his reiatsu turned blue once more. He could remember it though, and what he had felt scared him. He had been ready to kill Ulquiorra. Even if Ulquiorra wasn't his best friend, even if he sometimes thought the man acted like a total bastard, he still did not want to kill him. He did not want to kill anyone.

Somehow he knew were that emotion had come from. It was as if he could hear the echo of a laugh inside his head, a laugh that originated from **him**.

It scared him, but at the same time it angered him. He did not want to have to live in fear of hurting his friends, he wanted to protect them damn it. He would need to try harder at materialize his sword or something real dangerous might happen, something that he did not want to happen, something that he would regret for as long as he lived.

* * *

When Nelliel, Orihime, Chad, Uryuu and Grimmjow arrived at dining hall they were not prepared for what they would see. They saw two boys, Ulquiorra and Ichigo, sitting together at their usual table with bandages. Ichigo had a bandage in his face and Ulquiorra had one on his side. Ichigos was small, but it was clearly visible when it sat like that in his face, Ulquiorras was bigger but not as obvious.

The seven of them had all been worried for how it would go at the third grade Zanjutsu lesson, but they had not expected this. They had not expected to find any bleeding wounds on their friends.

"What the hell happened", Nelliel exclaimed her anger forgotten. When she looked at them again she felt a suspicion beginning to grow within her. "Don't tell me you guys did this to each other?" None of the others moved a step closer to Ichigo and Ulquiorra, they were to shocked.

"Well", Ichigo said hesitantly. "We spared."

"You spared", Orihime said her expression just as angry as Nelliels. "That's not wounds you get from a spar."

"In third grade Zanjutsu you spar with real swords", Ichigo said softly, thinking that maybe that fact would make them believe that it had been nothing more serious than a sparring session. He didn't really want them to begin asking about details, since he preferred to not even think about what had truly happened.

"It's nothing serious anyway", Ulquiorra said trying to get the girls of his back. "We were just sparing."

Nelliel opened her mouth as if to say something more, to reprimand Ulquiorra and Ichigo more, but someone else began to speak first.

"That's so cool", Grimmjow exclaimed and ran over to the table to sit down. "You guys sparred with real swords. I can't wait until I get to the next grade, seriously. I just can't wait. That's so awesome."

"Calm down Grimmjow", Ichigo said in a reviled tone while Ulquiorra just ignored Grimmjow. "It's not that special." The other four slowly started to walk over towards the table, as if they were worried that Ichigo and Ulquiorra still carried their swords.

"It's fine, nothing really happened", Ichigo said looking into his friends eyes. He hoped that they did not catch his worried tone, but he just couldn't help to wonder. Had something really happened or had it just been his imagination. He really didn't know.

Nelliel looked into his eyes, trying to see if he was hiding something, and she thought she glimsped something, a hidden lie. If he was going so far to hide something as to lie he probably wasn't comfortable in speaking about it, she thought to herself. She would ask him later, when the time was better. When there was only the two of them.

* * *

**Well that's all for this time guys:) Hope you liked it! Please R&R, and tell me what you think about the story. Anything is welcome, but please no flames;) Anything like wished parings, the pairings you think I'm using, what you want to happen in the story or what I can improve:)**

**Don't forget to R&R and make my day^^**


	12. Chapter 11: many small feelings

**I'm sorry for taking so long to update *bows*. School was killing me, I became sick and had a writers block. I think I'm getting back on track now, since my writers block has left me, so hopefully next chapter will not take as long time until it's uploaded. Much of it really depends on how much homework me and my beta reader have. That leads me to want to tell you guys a good piece of information, I finally have a beta reader. Thanks Lovve for doing this for me, the best friend ever!**

**I also want to tell you guys something important relating to this story. In one of the newer Bleach chapters we learned how a Zanpakuto become the shingamis own Zanpakuto, I WILL NOT USE THIS. Sadly it does not fit in to the story I have planned and I will not change a lot of my planning because of it. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own Bleach:,( If I did I would know what would happen and would plan this fanfic therefore. But if I owned Bleach I probably wouldn't be writing fanfiction about it, so maybe it's lucky that I don't;)**

* * *

Nelliel was pacing, her feelings of frustration and annoyance clearly showing. The feelings she had forgotten when she'd seen Ichigo's and Uluquiorra's wounds came back during the kido lesson. When Orihime and Uryuu had been moved up to the third grade.

"What's wrong", Ichigo asked with a concerned frown on his face. Nelliel did not usually act like this. "Did something happen?"

"Something happen?", she snarled, mimicking him. She did not bother to hide her emotions since there was only the two of them there. Once again they had sneaked off to train in the clearing that had become theirs.

"I'm just so annoyed at myself", she growled after a few moments had passed. "You and Ulquiorra were moved up in Zanjutsu and Orihime and Uryuu were moved up in kido. I was not moved up, even though Zanjutsu is my best subject. It all makes me very annoyed, especially at myself." Somehow it was easy to talk about stuff like this to Ichigo, Nelliel thought to herself. And it was nice to get all your feelings out.

"So that's why you wanted to train", Ichigo commented thoughtfully. "First I thought it was strange that you wanted to sneak away and train so badly. Both because it's mostly me that really wants to train and because we had very demanding lessons today. We usually don't train when we have exhausting lessons."

"But don't you feel annoyed too", Nelliel asked Ichigo, lifting one of her eyebrows. She felt much calmer now that she had gotten it all out.

"I do", Ichigo said frowning. He had tried to press away his constant annoyance and instead tell himself that it was good enough that he'd been moved up in Zanjutsu. That in turn had lead his thoughts to more unpleasant matters, so it hadn't really helped. In truth he felt very annoyed that Uryuu and Orihime had moved up to third grade in kido, while he still was in first grade. He was happy for their sake, even though he would never admit that he was happy for Uryuu, but it still made him annoyed at himself.

"I think it's good that we train today too", he continued. "We are not so tired that we can't train, and I at least need it. Especially if I'm going to be able to graduate in two years." Nelliel just nodded in agreement. This was not just only a good opportunity to train, Ichigo thought to himself bitterly. It was a good time to meditate, and that was something he needed no matter how unpleasant it might be.

The two of them started with kido, since Ichigos kido clearly needed more practice than Nelliels Zanjutsu. Nelliel also needed to practice kido, since it was not her best subject.

The time passed slowly and Ichigo was struggling with his kido as always. Nelliel didn't get much time to practice herself, since most of her time was given to Ichigo to help him improve. Ichigo just couldn't get the hang of controlling his power. He was better at controlling his power over all, but kido just needed so much precision. Deep inside he knew that he would never be a star at kido and that just made him annoyed that he had to learn it at all.

"I can't stand this", Ichigo exclaimed after failing to cast the kido for the umpteenth time. "Let's practice Zanjutsu or meditate instead, because if I do more kido I am going to go mad."

"Alright", Nelliel said and laughed softly. "Let's try some Zanjutsu. I think it's best to end with meditating anyway." Ichigo just nodded and began to look for the wooden sticks they had hidden in the clearing for Zanjutsu training. It was not optimal to train with wooden sticks, but it was their only option since they weren't allowed to borrow the wooden swords they used in class.

They began to spar against each other. It was nice and not even close to how serious it had been between Ichigo and Ulquiorra. This spar was friendly, and with no killing intent.

Both of them were tired, so they weren't as good as they'd normally be, but there was something more. Nelliel was making sloppy mistakes after sloppy mistakes, it was as if she wasn't concentrated at all.

After sparring for a short while Ichigo grabbed Nelliel's arm, forcing her to stop. If everything had been as normal he would never have been able to stop their sparring by just grabbing her arm. It showed how wrong everything was. There was just one problem, Ichigo had no idea of what was wrong.

"What's wrong with you today Nelliel?", he asked worriedly.

"There's nothing wrong", she snarled annoyed that he had stopped the fight. "Let's go back to sparring."

"There is so", Ichigo said seriously. "You are acting way more prideful than normal and you never make as many mistakes as you just did."

"I did not", Nelliel said softly, her voice ringing with betrayal.

"Don't deny it", Ichigo retorted annoyed. Why wouldn't she tell him? "Since you are my friend I want to help, but I can't damn well do anything if I don't know what's wrong." In the end he was almost screaming.

When Ichigo's words hit Nelliel it was as if all the anger left her. Instead her expression became sad and self hating. Her entire body shook, as if the anger that had left her instead had filled her with an immense sadness.

"I'm sorry for doubting you", Nelliel said carefully. "It's just that everything's been going wrong today sort of and I began to doubt."

"I understand", Ichigo said and he really did. He understood how it felt like having a bad day. "But I don't think you have to doubt anything really."

"What do you mean?" she asked confused. "Zanjutsu is my best subject, but I was still not moved up. Of course I would doubt myself." Without thinking about it Nelliel opened herself to Ichigo, talking about things she normally never spoke of.

"You're a talented, beautiful and nice woman who is a great friend, Nell. You've got friends that will help you if anything happens, not that I don't think you can't take care of yourself..."

Nelliel was staring at Ichigo with a surprised expression, and Ichigo realized how he had talked on. Wanting to comfort her, but not really knowing what to say, he had began to babble.

"I just wanted to...", Ichigo said not knowing what he should think of her expression. Had he insulted her?

"It's nothing. Thanks", Nelliel said, her eyes glittering. "It makes me feel better to know that you think that." Ichigo just didn't know what he was supposed to say as an answer. "I think we should start meditating now", Nelliel continued breaking the awkward silence. "I'm not really in the mood for sparring any longer."

"I agree", Ichigo said and nodded relieved that he didn't have to answer her last statement. What was he supposed to say, he asked himself. What did she even mean? Instead of thinking it all over and coming up with a smart response, he fled to his meditation. He just happened to forget what was waiting in his own mind.

When he began meditating he did as you were supposed to do, he began with calming himself. This time he began with feeling the atmosphere, what was around him. The trees were swaying softly, he could feel a small breeze caressing his face. A little bit of light still shone in the sky, but the sun was on it's way down. It would soon become dark. He felt himself calm down, but at the same time something was disturbing his mediation. Nelliel sat way to close.

He had never tried to meditate in another person's presence before, not seriously at least, and he had never discovered how weird it felt. He felt like he couldn't concentrate on his own mind, but he had to. If he fled from his own mind now, even because of the excuse that Nelliel was close, he might never be able to return again. So he forced himself to start from the beginning.

Instead of feeling what was around him, he began to feel inside of himself. He felt his muscles, how they were tired and exhausted. They longed for the rest of sleep, but would embrace the rest of meditation if that was the only meditation they would get for now. He felt how his body relaxed, how he sank into the depths of meditation. The last thought he had before he felt himself going down into his own mind, was how Nelliel was sitting close to him meditating. If something went wrong she...

His thoughts were interrupted when he touched the darkness of his own mind. His goal was to find his Zanpakuto, and somehow drag the spirit out to materialize his own sword. No matter how much he searched though, he could only find the darkness from **him**. He tried to look around it, but the darkness was everywhere. The only way was to go through it.

He felt how his consciousness lightly tapped the ever moving darkness. Then it sank deeper and deeper down. When he first touched it he had felt **him**, the slight presence of something that should not be there. Then he began to hear the ever chilling laughter that surrounded **him**, the laughter that meant that **he **was there.

The deeper he sank into the huge darkness of filth the worse he felt. Deep inside himself he felt like some of that filth would remain, even when he left his own mind and quit meditating. It felt like some of that filth, some of that essence of **him**, would be stuck with him forever.

* * *

Nelleil looked at the child before her. She had met the child many times before, both in dreams and in meditation, because the child was simply said her Zanpakuto. There was one problem though, she could not understand the child at all. A persons Zanpakuto was supposed to be a part of ones own soul, but the child was nothing like her.

"Can we play? Can we play", the child exclaimed, looking at Nelliel with begging eyes. "Please, just a short while! Pretty Please!"

"Do we have to?" Nelleil answered with a frustrated expression on her face. "The only thing we ever do when I come here to meet you is play, but that's not even what we are supposed to do. We are supposed to talk, get closer, so that I can learn how to materialize you. Then I'm supposed to learn your name. We are not supposed to only play." At the end she was almost screaming. Nelliel had nothing against playing a bit sometimes, but this was too much.

"Well, I guess we could do something else", her zanpakuto answered, lightening a flame of hope in Nelliel. They would finally do something else than playing Nelliel thought to herself. "We don't have to play eternal tag. Let's play truth teller."

"Another game?" Nelliel said, feeling her hope die inside of her. "What is this for sort of game, if we play it will you finally tell me about yourself?"

"I will", the child said laughing. "I think you will like this game. First I will ask you a question and you have to answer with the truth. Then you can ask me any question you want and I'll answer. You can even ask me how you are supposed to materialize me." Her last words came out in a sneaky tone, as if she knew a secret that no one else knew.

"Fine then, ask your question", Nelliel said. If all she had to do was answer a question with the truth to get to hear of how she could materialize her zanpakuto she was glad to do it. She might be the first of her friends to manage materializing her zanpakuto. She felt pride filling her chest.

"Great", the child said clapping her hands together excitedly. "How do you feel about Ichigo?"

"What?" Nelliel excalimed surprised. "What do you mean? Ichigo is a friend of course."

"Wrong", the child exclaimed and began to laugh. Nelliel could only stare at the child. She had told the child, her zanpakuto, the truth, so why was this happening?

"I want the truth", her zanpakuto said more seriously this time. "Lying to me is like lying to yourself. It never works in the end." Then everything turned black.

* * *

When Nelliel opened her eyes again she no longer was in her inner world. Her mind was back in the clearing, because of some reason she had been thrown out from her inner world. No, her zanpakuto had thrown her out of her inner world.

Why, the thought echoed in her head. She felt that the answer should be obvious, that to anyone but her it would be. Thinking she looked around herself, pondering on this question. When her gaze met Ichigo though, she began thinking about more important things.

Ichigo was sitting down, meditating, just like he had before she'd went down into her inner world. This time something was clearly different though. Sweat dripped from his forehead and his face wore a pained expression that made her want cringe inside. It made her wonder if it really was Ichigo, because Ichigo never showed pain like that.

What is happening to him, she thought to herself focusing all her attention on him. She had long since forgotten her own troubles, only Ichigo plagued her mind. Then she heard him grown in pain and she moved without thinking.

A few seconds later she met his waking gaze. She sat close enough to him that she could feel his body heat through their clothes and her hand rested lightly on his shoulder. Her eyes shone with worry, but seeing him wake from his state of meditation without any problem calmed her heart a bit. It was still not enough to blow away the clouds entirely.

"Are you alright?" she asked him as she looked into his confused eyes. It was as if he had awoken from a long sleep and couldn't remember exactly where he was and what had happened. When he looked around himself though, she saw some of the pain return into his eyes. It was not only pain that came, there was desperation, helplessness and defeat. It was a mix of raw and painful emotions. It almost made her want to take a step back, to escape from all of these painful emotions.

"Ichigo", she began, not really knowing what to say. When her eyes once more met his, she decided to say just what she wanted to say. "Ichigo, I'm going back to my dorm now, since it's late and both of us need our sleep. Before I go, I just want to tell you something. I want to tell you that I will always be here, you can always talk to me. There is something that is bothering you now, I don't know what and I won't press you. I want you to know though, that if you feel that it's too heavy to bear alone you can always talk to me about it. I will be here to listen." She looked deep into his eyes, trying to give him as much comfort as she could without actually pressing him.

"I would be very happy to help", she finished her small speech, feeling all energy leave was like she had used al the energy that was left in her body to finish her speech, she felt echausted. "Goodnight", she said when he still hadn't opened his mouth. Then she slowly walked away, leaving Ichigo alone with his dark thoughts. She didn't want to intrude, knowing that sometimes one wanted to alone.

* * *

When Orihime went to bed that night she could not fall asleep. She was alone in her room, Nelliel was still not back from wherever she had gone. She and Ichigo had disappeared again, to train separately of course. Sometimes Orihime wondered if they thought she was dumb enough to actually accept that. At the same time she wondered why her other friends seemed to be dumb enough to accept it. Well not all of them, but some of them.

Sure Orihime was an airhead, but she was not dumb and neither was she naive. Dumb and naive people did not survive in the environments she had been living in for the past ten years.

Once again she closed her eyes and tried to fall asleep, but it was still not possible. Too much had happened today.

_When their kido teacher told Orihime and Uryuu that they were moving up into the third grade Orihime had been so surprised. She hadn't expected it at all, because she didn't really have a lot of confidence. She always kept wondering if she was good enough. _

_her confidence had become better since they had started here in this school, since it seemed as if she was talented, but the questions still came sometimes. As it had done when she sat in the third year's classroom. _

_She had felt the disapproving stares on her. Heard the whispers around her. Once again it made her doubt what she was doing here. Was she really this good? _

_She could understand that Uryuu had been moved up, he was amazing in kido, but she was not as good as him. She was far behind him in ability. Some of her other friends might even be better than her. When it came to her own ability she really was that delusional. _

_What am I doing here, the question echoed inside of her head._

_When the practical part of the kido lesson started she had been paired up with Uryuu, they were supposed to practice series of new bakudos on each other. In the series the bakudo's numbers varied between twenty and thirty, making it the hardest sort of kido she had ever cast. It hadn't helped that she was nervous as hell. _

_Her first tries had failed, of course. When you think you are going to fail, you fail. Orihime had wanted to die, to fall down into a deep corner of shame where nobody would be looking at her and expecting what she could not give. Just when Orihime had thought that it couldn't get worse, she heard laughter coming from somebody. _

_When she turned her head towards the sound she saw two girls. One of the girls had black hair in two ponytails, the other girl's hair was blond, short and almost stood straight up, which made it look very boyish. At the same time as Orihime's gaze left them the black haired girl looked up. For a millisecond their eyes met and what Orihime saw in them almost made her shudder. It was a look of pure hatred and despise, emotions she thought she left behind together with her old life. It all made her wonder what she had done to deserve having these emotions directed at her. _

_She had had a hard time concentrating on the kido. She managed to cast the spells a few times, but not nearly as often as Uryuu did it. She knew that Uryuu had noticed that something keeping her from concentrating her fullest on the kido, but she was glad that he didn't ask. She didn't think she could handle questions right now. _

_When she left the lesson together with Uryuu somebody bumped into her. The woman whispered a few hateful words, quiet enough so that Uryuu couldn't hear them. The words stopped Orihime in her tracks, and made her unable to do anything but stare at the back of the person who said them. _

_"What the hell do you think you are doing princess? Do you think you are something? You don't belong here." The words cut her deep inside, making her unable to move, to think. The only thing she could do was stare at a pair of swaying black ponytails. _

Whenever Orihime thought back to that moment, it was as if she could hear the words as clearly as if they were spoken. "You don't belong here." The words made her want to cry, but every time she felt herself beginning to break apart she pulled herself together. She was no weak girl, she had survived in one of Soul Society's darkest, filthiest and dangerous place. She might have been weak in her past life, something within her told her that even though she couldn't remember it, but she would be weak no longer. She refused to. At least that's what she told herself.

She heard how someone softly opened the door to her and Nelliel's room. Nelliel was back. Orihime couldn't help smiling, but before she had time to say anything Nelliel stumbled into her bed, with clothes on and all, and fell asleep. It almost made Orihime want to laugh, because it looked so funny.

While keeping herself from bursting into laughter, a more serious thought hit her. The only reason as to why Nelliel could possibly be this exhausted was that she had trained, trained and trained even more. It made Orihime realize that she should have trained today too, instead of relaxing because she was feeling a bit tired. Tomorrow she thought to herself. Tomorrow will be a new day. I won't have any kido lessons and I'll be able to practice it in the afternoon. I'm gonna get better. I won't embarrass myself on the next kido lesson. I refuse to be the only one that is weak.

With that thought in her head Orihime finally fell asleep.

* * *

_"Orihime, Orihime", she heard voices call and when she opened her eyes she immediately realized were she was. Her dreams had once more carried her into her inner world to meet her zanpakutos. _

_"I'm listening", she said to stop the insistent calls. "Did you call me here for something important?" Maybe they would finally tell her more about themselves. She had noticed that a lot of people in third grade had materialized their own zanpakuto already, so maybe it was time for her to do so as well. _

_"Orihime you already know all about us", one of the six flying fairies said. When Orihime met her Zanpakuto for the first time she had gotten a real surprise. A Zanpakuto was supposed to be one spirit and in some cases they were two, but her Zanpakuto was made up of six. Everyone of them had their own name, but to achieve Shikai she needed to know the name they were called together. The one that just talked was Shuno, he was usually the one talking to her. _

_"I don't know enough", Orihime exclaimed, feeling annoyed. Her Zanpakuto was so damn cryptic, the few times one of them actually talked they said something that she didn't understand or that didn't seem true. They didn't have to tell her everything at the same time, but couldn't they at least give her a few hints. _

_"Oi, stupid woman", Tsubaki screamed. "All that matters is that we will come when you need us, you don't need to learn how to call us whenever you want. It's better that you learn how to control us, when you call us." _

_"That's not true", Orihime said annoyed. "I do need to learn how to call you, but first of all I need to learn how to materialize you guys into a sword that I am supposed to carry around with me the entire time."_

_"Argh", Tsubaki growled and flew towards Orihime. He attacked her and began pulling her hair. That was the only way were he could really attack her, since he was so small compared to her. "First of all you need to learn how to use us before you can call us or anything. "_

_"He is going at it again", Hinagiku said laughing softly. _

_"Just stop Tsubaki", Shuno said annoyed. "It's enough."_

_Orihime tried to fend of Tsubaki, but he was so small that it was kind of hard. She didn't really want to hit her Zanpakuto either. She was still soft inside._

_"I give up", Orihime exclaimed. "Since you guys seem to refuse to talk to me anyway I might as well get some real sleep. Goodnight." Then Orihime left her inner world to return back into the normal state of dreaming. She really hoped that they might quit calling her in her dreams if they had nothing to tell her. _

* * *

**I hope you like this new chapter even though it is sort of short. But please rate and review and tell me what you thought about it. Cause I wanna now you guys opinions! So drop in and tell me;)**


	13. Chapter 12: a little bit of jealousy

**Have had a nice week in Italy with my family skiing, that's why I love the sport holiday:) And now I'm finally uploading the next chapter of this story. I was late again:( I feel so embarrassed, hope you guys enjoy anyway^^ I also want to thank my amazing friend and beta reader Lovve who took time out of her holiday to correct this chapter of mine. Thank you very much!**

**Disclaimer: I don't own bleach.**

* * *

Ulquiorra was supposed to calm down and start meditating. That was not an easy task for him right now. He had no problem with meditating, he wanted to meditate damn it, the problem lay in calming down. He had had a seriously hard time calming down since Thursday, at least whenever he couldn't occupy his mind with anything else. When he meditated he couldn't occupy his mind with anything else since he was supposed to empty it, which was not possible at the moment.

"That son of a bitch", Ulquiorra screamed, not bothering to be silent since there was nobody around him anyway. Why had Ichigo materialized his zanpakuto before Ulquiorra. It made him furious just thinking about it. That in its turn made him frustrated, annoyed and a little bit confused. He never felt strong emotions, he could count the times he had felt this strongly on just one hand. Why was he feeling like that now?

He sighed deeply. If he was ever supposed to be able to meditate, which he really wanted to, he had to confront the problem. Which would be hard, he realized as he didn't even want to admit to himself that he had been avoiding it. Well he had no damn choice, since he hadn't been able to enter his inner world in any other possible way. He had tried the entire morning and it hadn't worked.

So why was he so annoyed, he asked himself again, calmly analyzing it. It might have to do with last Monday when he had been sparing against Ichigo. It was the first time ha had struggled so much in a fight, first time he had felt himself become serious. If he had known the feeling of having a rival he would know that Ichigo was his. Since he didn't know that feeling though all he knew was that he definitely did not want to lose to that man. Ichigo was not his enemy, nor was he really a comrade. He might be what people called a friend, but since Ulquiorra had never had anyone like that he didn't know. Ulquiorra did not know much about emotions and relations to other people, that's why this was so confusing and frustrating.

That wasn't all though, no it was far from the entire reason why he was feeling so mad. It also had to do with Nelliel. That damn woman, he told himself, but not even to himself did it sound sincere. He might have regretted meeting her sometimes, but never in the long run. She was the one person who had entered his heart, the first one he met who he actually began to care about. She was his one comrade, and that just made it so much worse.

He didn't understand how she believed that she had him fooled. Their new friends, was that the right word for them, might be fools, but he certainly wasn't. He had survived alone in very dangerous places much because of his ability to analyze. She knew that, she had lived there with him. So why did she seem to think he was a fool? That bothered him almost as much as what she was trying to hide from him.

Why was she sneaking away from him and the others to train with Ichigo? Why? That question bothered him so much, making him unable to concentrate. What did she see in that conceited son of a bitch? He was getting mad again, he realized suddenly. That in its turn made him mad at himself. He did not get mad about things like this, he wasn't that sort of person damn it. He was the calm and analyzing guy, not the over emotional one.

No matter how much he told himself that he shouldn't be mad though, the anger did not leave him. He had no control over his feelings right now, and that fact bothered him almost as what caused his anger in the first place. Together it made his emotions swirl around inside his head in ways he definitely wasn't used to. He didn't even wanna get used to it for gods sake, he wanted to go back to being that in control uncaring person. Even to him it did not really sound true.

Calming down was out of question since his anger and frustration was too much, but when he went to the bottom of his feelings he found something that he could except. He did not want to lose. Whatever happened to himself, Nelliel or anyone else, he did not want to lose to Ichigo. The feeling was so strong that it surprised him, making him think that this was even stronger than the anger flowing through him. He refused to lose.

Blinking he found himself in his inner world. He did not know how he ended up here, since he had been told that you could only enter your inner world if you were calm. His only guess was that his Zanpakuto had brought him here for some reason. It might want to talk to him, maybe it even wanted to tell him something important. Ulquiorra knew what he hoped it wanted to talk to him about.

He looked around himself, searching for his Zanpakuto. All he saw was the darkness of his inner world. It was a desolate place, an ever expanding desert. It had some weak and small looking trees, struggling to grow in this harsh place. Above it all was a black sky, showing that it was night in here even though it was day time out in the real world. The only light came from a shining moon, making the world seem strangely white. To most people it would not be a comforting sight, but Ulquiorra somehow felt it calm him. The first time it had almost surprised him, it was not how he imagined an inner world was supposed to look. When he thought it through it seemed rather fitting though. It fit him since it was just as empty as he was. Now it almost felt like coming home, even though he had never experienced this feeling, it felt like he belonged here.

When he was looking around himself, he saw how the shadow of a bat flew towards him. It came right above, from the same direction as the moon was. It shadowed some parts of the moon, making the shining white ball having a mark of a bat on it.

The bat was soon upon him, opening his mouth to talk. **"So you are here again"**, it laughed. **"But this time you are not as empty and uncaring as before huh. This should be interesting. Xhahahahaha."**

**"**Silent", Ulquiorra growled. Even if this was his Zanpakuto he would not be looked down upon. To be looked down upon was showing weakness, and weakness killed you. Ulquiorra despised weakness. "If you have not brought me here to tell me anything of importance, then why am I here?"

**"Playing around", **it chuckled in its deep voice. If it had been a human Ulquiorra thought it would be tilting its head and looking at him with inquiring eyes. **"Or maybe I had something important to tell you... but I think I forgot."**

Ulquiorra felt the calmness leave him again. When he came back into this inner world of his he had felt how his emotions returned under his control and how calmness once again entered his body. The bat made it leave again though and that mad him even madder. He had already been at the limit of what he could take and this bat did not make it easier. He did not even want to acknowledge this low level creature as his Zanpakuto.

**"I'll pretend that I didn't hear that last part", **the bat growled in a now more serious tone. **"But I did call you here for a reason. I just wanted to see something with my own eyes, but since I have already seen it you can go again." **

"If you think I will just leave like this you are deadly wrong, bat", Ulquiorra spoke with all the contempt he could muster. Contempt was a good feeling, a feeling he was used to. "I will not be called upon like a dog and then expected to leave when the caller pleases. You have called me here and that works just as much in my favor as in yours. So talk, _bat_, or do you enjoy losing?"

**"I was wondering what you were going to say",** the bat hissed. **"But do you have no respect ****_boy_****?"**

"I have no respect for those that have no respect for me", Ulquiorra answered in a blunt tone. "And I especially do not have respect for trash." The bat growled furiously in protest. "You seem to be no more than trash since you do not seem to mind losing."

**"I guess you have guts at least ****_boy_****",** the bat snickered, his tone no longer as serious. **"But since we are one what hurts your pride sadly hurts mine. Well you will have to prove to me how much it matters before you will be given anything ****_boy_****. Now be gone from my sight."**

Ichigo woke from yet another nightmare, dripping with sweat. He had thought they would stop coming, or at least start coming less frequently. Last Thursday he hadn't had a nightmare and that had filled him with false hope, which just made the truth that much harsher. Even though he had materialized his zanpakuto **he **still hunted Ichigo.

A cold shiver ran through Ichigo's body when he remembered what had happened last Thursday. It was as if he had fallen into **his **trap, whatever it now was. He still did not know what **he **wanted, or what **he **was for that matter.

**"So you are finally getting stronger Ichigo. I am waiting... waiting for that battle of ours." **The words he had heard when he dragged a part of his zanpakuto's spirit out from his inner world still echoed in his head. It made him feel sick inside, at the same time as it filled him with a cold and heartless feeling. It was as if he had done what that monster wanted him to do, as if he was a part of **him**.

* * *

This Thursday that had become such an important day hadn't started out without anything out of order. The out of order stuff hadn't begun to happen until he was all alone, meditating. This time not even Nelliel was around. It had made him feel better since he knew that there was no chance of him hurting anybody if something went wrong, but at the same time he realized that he missed Nelliels comforting presence.

He had went deep into himself, just like last time. This time though he had continued down into that ever stretching hate and darkness, he had sunk deeper and deeper down until he had found something else. It had been weak, it almost hadn't been there, but he could sense his zanpakuto's spirit. He had somehow grabbed that, even though it almost wasn't there, then he had fought his way up to the surface of all that suffocating darkness. When he opened his eyes he had found a sword laying beside him, his zanpakuto, and at the same time he had heard those words. The words that promised him that nothing was over.

He no longer thought that he would be able to achieve peace in his mind without fighting **him**, but **he **was clearly way stronger than Ichigo. It scared him to know that he had such a dangerous spirit inside of himself, not because he was afraid of being harmed, but because he knew what it would do if it ever got control over Ichigo's body.

The fact that nobody else talked about having a monster inside them made it so much worse. It made Ichigo feel as if something was wrong with him, as if he was something unnatural. If it was something every shinigami experienced he wouldn't have any problem with it, because then it would be normal. It wouldn't be as dangerous any more.

Ichigo turned restlessly in his bed. He knew that he needed to go to sleep, but he feared it. He was scared of getting closer to that thing, to **him**. Who knew how that could change him?

"Get a fucking grip", he growled to himself. I refuse to be a coward, he told himself. No matter what I refuse to be the sort of man that runs away. If **he **wants a fight **he **will get one. I will achieve Shikai, and then I will get him out of my mind.

With a goal in mind Ichigo felt a little bit better and soon he fell asleep. The strange thing was that no more dreams haunted him that night.

* * *

Orihime sat at their table watching her friends. A strange mood had come over them since the day that Ichigo had materialized his Zanpakuto. It was as if they had first now realized that it was all a contest, that only one of them could be best. She shook her head unconsciously, to her it didn't matter who was best, just that all of them would graduate within the two years. At least that's what she told herself.

Ichigo and Nelliel had already left their table, already gone away to train on their own as they always did. Usually they would not do that every evening, but this week they had and Orihime guessed that that it had something to do with the fact that Nelliel still hadn't been moved up to the third grade in Zanjutsu. Today it was Wednesday, which meant that tomorrow, which was Thursday, they would have a Zanjutsu lesson again. If Nelliel wasn't moved up then she would probably kill somebody.

When she sat their thinking about all sorts of stuff, her eyes fell on Ulquiorra. Without realizing it herself she was watching him. Watching his beautiful black hair, falling into his deep green eyes and studying his exotic green tattoos. He really had a strangely beautiful appearance that entranced her like nothing else ever had. Just then she realized what she had been thinking about. She violently shook her head to clean it from all strange thoughts, but her eyes fell on him again.

Even though she was looking straight into his eyes it appeared as if he wasn't seeing her. He was looking out into nothing and it was as if she could see the thoughts spinning in his eyes. His eyes looked sad, she thought to herself and this was about the man that never showed any emotion. If she told anybody else that she thought he looked sad she was sure they would laugh at her, but something within her told her that he really was sad.

It wasn't that she actually was surprised to see sadness in his eyes. Since last thursday, when Ichigo had materialized his Zanpakuto, he had been even quieter than normal. His voice had held less emotion and somehow he had treated Ichigo with more contempt than normal, which she couldn't understand how that was possible since he had treated Ichigo with as much contempt she thought possible before. All those emotions she could understand though, since she had spent the only ten years of her life that she could remember with three boys. It was just simply rivalry. There was something else among it all that bothered her, the way he looked at Nelliel.

The way Ulquiorra looked at Nelliel hurt her deep within and the fact that it hurt her was something she couldn't understand and it annoyed her. Ulquiorra looked at Nelliel with sadness and hopelessness, it was the only way she could describe it but it didn't feel a 100% correct. It was as if every time he looked at her he realized that he had lost the only thing precious to him before realizing that it was precious, and because of some weird reason it hurt Orihime deep inside.

"Hahahaha", she laughed out loud at her own stupidity, earning strange looks from her friends. Was she kidding herself, there was no way she was that good at reading him. He was not even possible to read, since he had no emotions. He really didn't, she tried to tell herself but even to herself it sounded false. Her earlier mirth faded and instead she felt like laying down and crying. What was wrong with her? She had never felt like this before.

Just for a second Ulquiorra's deep green eyes looked into her own and he really saw her this time. It was just for a second before she looked away in shame, he had to have realized that she had been staring at him and she didn't even know herself why she had been staring at him. God she hadn't even been staring at him.

Just for a second though she had seen something in his eyes that she had never seen before, a tiny bit of light.

* * *

"I was moved up, Ichigo", Nelliel screamed jumping up and down. "I was finally moved up. Thank you so much!" Then she jumped onto him, embracing him in a giant hug right before everyone else, and all Ichigo could do was stare. Sure, she had been moved up to third grade in Zanjutsu, but why was she thanking him? He hadn't done anything, had he?

"Nelliel", he said softly trying to pry her arms away. It wasn't as if he couldn't appreciate her hug, but the piercing glances from his friends made him rather uncomfortable. If looks could kill he would already be dead thanks to Ulquiorra. Since looks couldn't kill he was still alive, which he wished to stay being and something deep within him told him that if he kept hugging Nelliel for much longer he would not stay alive. So he softly pried her hands away and whispered "later", so that only she would be able to hear. Why had he said that?

"It's great that you were moved up", he said in a louder tone still wondering why he had said that other thing. Really why? "Let's go to our lesson Ulquiorra." When he pronounced the man's name he looked deep into his eyes as if to challenge him to say something else. Ichigo was challenging Ulquiorra he realized and his fingers itched to fight him, Ichigo could only hope that they would be made to spar on this lesson. Somehow he managed to not remember what had happened the last time they fought. Somehow.

"If you want a fight you'll get one bastard", Ulquiorra whispered under his breath to Ichigo when they walked beside each other to the lesson. It was so quite that not even Nelliel heard it, even though she was walking on the other side of Ichigo.

Ichigo didn't answer because he didn't want Nelliel to realize that they had been talking about stuff like that, he had a feeling she wouldn't approve at all. So instead of answering he growled softly producing an animal sound that showed just how ready he was. The only question now was how the hell he was supposed to wait an hour of theory Zanjutsu before laying hands on the bastard's neck. Without realizing it he had already assumed that the two of them would be paired up.

Throughout the entire lesson of theory, when he was sitting beside both Nelliel and Ulquiorra his fingers were twitching. He didn't understand how he made it through the entire lesson without jumping the man, he just didn't. Even worse was he didn't understand where his fury came from it was just there.

The entire lesson passed with him in something like a trance, he didn't hear a word the teacher said. When he saw that the other people rose from their seats he rose as well, following his friends to the practice hall. Then he the teacher began calling up names of who were to spar with who, luckily they would not be practicing a new set of sword motions today. Just when he felt himself waking from his deep trance he heard two names being called that dragged him down into his trance again, Nelliel and Ulquiorra. He would not be sparring with Ulquiorra.

All the fury flew out of him like the air out of a popped balloon. It went back to were it came from, which meant that he had no idea of where it went and it annoyed him. Filled with annoyance and frustration, no fury luckily, he saw a somewhat old man walk up to him. The man had brown wavy hair that ended a bit before his shoulders and his blue-grey eyes looked bored as if he was bored out of his mind. It looked as if he had been paired up with another guy that knew nothing of fighting.

"Shall we begin", the man said in a clearly bored voice which made Ichigo even more annoyed. His annoyance made him forget that he seemed to have an exceptionally high reiatsu, and he attacked with all his power, trying to get the frustration that had come from not being able to fight with Ulquiorra out of him.

He flashed before the man swinging his Zanpakuto down. Ever since he had materialized his Zanpakuto he had been allowed to fight with it. His sword clashed into his opponents and he hadn't even seen the man move. The clash resounded throughout the room and something told him that the sword was his opponent's Zanpakuto. Maybe the man wasn't as weak as he looked.

"Must we really fight seriously", the man asked tiredly, and they had not even began. "Let's just pretend to spar and take it easy instead." That angered Ichigo even more. Did the man not take him seriously?

Using shunpo he flashed behind the man and tried to strike him behind. Before his sword hit his target the man had already vanished. As a reflex his sword rose a parried the sword that came from behind, the man had flashed to behind him without him realizing it.

"Who are you", Ichigo asked wondering. He had learned quite a lot since fighting with Ulquiorra, but he would not be surprised if this man was better. This was the first time he fought with someone this strong that was not one of his friends.

* * *

Ulquiorra was being pushed back, pushed back damn it. Nelliel was pushing him back. He knew she was capable of fighting, if anyone knew that it was him. Every time they had come into a fight they had been fighting back to back as equals, and she had even saved his life a couple of times. He had not expected her to push him back though, not now.

"Damn it Ulquiorra", she screamed pretty loudly, but because of all noise in the room it only reached his ears. "Why aren't you fighting me with all your power? I'm not some kind of weak girl that can't stand it."

"I'm not holding back", Ulquiorra said and he did not realize that it was a lie until after he had said it. He was holding back, unintentionally of course. He would never allow himself to be pushed back on purpose. He changed his stance and attacked, this time with all his power. It was not as serious as when he had been fighting with Ichigo, this was still a spar, but neither of them were holding back.

The two of them were equal, each blow was matched and the both of them attacked as much as they defended. They knew the other so well that they could predict every move the other would make. A more equal battle was not to be found in the entire room.

It was not enough. For Ulquiorra it was not enough. The fact that Ichigo had materialized his Zanpakuto before him had teared his pride to shreds and he needed to rebuild it. Now. His mind was occupied with sparring with Nelliel, he couldn't take a tiny bit of concentration away from their battle because then he would definitely lose. Still he had to do something.

When their swords clashed into each other he happened to cast a short glance toward Ichigo and what he saw made even him wear a surprised expression. Ichigo was fighting as equal with another man, and he was using his Zanpakuto. They were both better than he was right now, he just knew it. It triggered the anger inside of him.

He felt something move, something deep within his soul. It was as if everything moved in slow motion, his and Nelliel's sword were still locked against each others but it felt like hours had passed with the thing moving in his soul. Then everything happened in an instant.

The sword he held in his hand fell to the ground and Nelliel jumped back. At the same time another sword appeared in his hand, one second it was not there and the next it was. It was his Zanpakuto that had been pulled out from the very depths of his soul. When he felt his Zanpakuto in his hand a voice echoed in his mind. **"I see you do have some pride, ****_boy. _****I guess I can lend you a small amount of my power."**

"What just happened", Nelliel exclaimed, when a few minutes had passed with the of them trying to understand what just happened. Ulquiorra didn't answer, he was busy with staring at the sword in his hand. It was his Zanpakuto, his. The bat had acknowledged him enough to allow Ulquiorra to use him as his sword. It was the first time that he felt happy that someone had acknowledged his ability because he had always been sure of his worth before. Why would he need trash to acknowledge him? Nobody had every been worthy enough in his eyes before to make him happy for being something like acknowledged. Well maybe it could be explained by saying that the bat was a part of himself. Maybe.

"It seems I have materialized my Zanpakuto", Ulquiorra said in an unemotional voice, hiding his spinning thoughts. "Do you still want to spar?" He asked his question without any emotion in his voice, but it still sounded mocking. It wasn't that he really intended it to be mocking, it was just that he didn't know any other way to speak.

"Of course", Nelliel growled, she would not back out of any fight. Before Ulquiorra cast himself into their spar once more he quickly glanced toward Ichigo's spar. It seemed like Ichigo and his opponent had come to a stand still, their mouths were opened and it seemed like they were talking. Sadly Ulquiorra could not hear over all the noise in the room, he could just wonder about what they were talking about.

* * *

"Who are you", Ichigo repeted since he had gotten no answer the last time he asked. "What's your name?"

"My name", the other man answered slowly standing still. It seemed as if the man began to relax, as if he took Ichigo's questions as proof that they could stop sparring and instead begin talking. Talking was after all less energy consuming than sparing.

"Why are you asking for my name? You must have heard it when the teacher called our names together to show that we would spar together. ... Or were you not listening?" The man watched with those bored and lazy eyes of his, registering and analyzing everything Ichigo did. Ichigo had never felt this watched before, even though the man seemed to hate doing anything that consumed the least bit of energy he was watching Ichigo with the most piercing eyes Ichigo had ever felt.

"I wasn't listening", Ichigo said shortly feeling uncomfortable under the other man's stare. He was sure the other man already knew his answer but it was the only thing Ichigo could think of saying to break the awkward silence. He began staring at the other man, as if to force the man to answer his question. The two of them were locked into a battle of stares, their eyes staring deep into the others.

"Tch", the other man sighed. "Fine I'll tell you, if you agree to just pretending to spar for the rest of the lesson." The man couldn't even bother fighting a battle of wills with Ichigo, he was truly that lazy. Ichigo himself just nodded as a response since he really wanted to know this man's name.

"Well I'm Cyote Starrk", the man said with the same expression on his face. "Just Starrk preferably." This was a name Ichigo would remember.

* * *

**Well that was this chapter:) Hope you look forward to the next and this time it's not going to take me so long time to update^^ I will try my best!  
**

**So please don't forget to tell me what you thought and review!**


	14. Chapter 13: Starrk and Lilynette

**A new chapter is up and I have to say that I am so sorry for being so late with this chapter. I have a thousands excuses I could give, but non of them would be good enough. All I can say is that real life has come in the way and that I haven't been writing on this story for the three months. I haven't written a word on this story, because of many, but small, reasons. Instead of saying all these reasons and keeping you here in the author notes section, if you read it;), I will let you go on to the chapter. **

**Disclaimer: As I have said many times before I don't own bleach^^ The only thing I can say about canon bleach is that it's really exciting right now, can't wait to see what happens with the quincy power in Ichigo:)**

* * *

"So Starrk, what do you say", Ichigo asked. "Do you want to graduate with us in a year and a half. It shouldn't be to hard for you since you're on your third year already, you would just have to move up a year in every grade."

_It was a sunday, the 23 of december to be exact. It was a pretty day with snow falling slowly from the heavens. It was the day that began the Christmas vacation in the shinigami academy. In truth it was the schools only vacation beside the summer one, and it was a little bit more than a week long. _

_Somehow Ichigo had missed getting informed on the fact that they were having a weeks and two days holiday and when his friends had told him hell had broken free. "Why are we having a holiday", he had screamed at his friends like it was their fault. "What are we even supposed to do in a holiday?" _

_"Most people would go and meet their family or the friends that live outside of the shingami academy", Uryuu said in a mocking voice. Uryuu, Chad and Ichigo had been about to go to sleep in their dorm room when Chad and Uryuu had began talking about the they were going to do at the unwanted holiday. That had lead them them to the situation they were in now. It wasn't that Uryuu couldn't understand the way that Ichigo felt. He also didn't really see the point of a holiday. Sure his brain did see a point, but not his heart. _

_"We will be one of the few people staying at the academy over the holiday", Chad said in his ever so low voice. Chad, Uryuu, Ichigo and Orihime had no where else to go to than the academy, no other place that they could call as a home and no other place where they had either friends or family. Uryuu didn't think that their other friends had any other place to go to either, but you could never know. _

_"Damn", Ichigo muttered to himself. "Well I guess we could always train or something." His voice sounded very resigned, because really there was nothing Ichigo could do about it. It was in moments like this that Uryuu felt a feeling of hopelessness wanting to rise within him. It wanted to tell him how everything was pointless, and maybe it was. Uryuu just didn't care enough anymore. As long as he was with his friends, not Ichigo of course, it didn't matter if it was pointless. _

"Nah, I don't think so", Starrk answered laziness shining through his eyes. Starrk was the laziest person any of them had ever meet before, but at the same time he was very observant. It was like he had a great ability, but he just didn't see the point of using it.

After Ichigo and Starrk had sparred on that fateful Thursday they had seen Starrk sitting alone in the dinner hall and had invited him to sit with them. In the end they had somehow ended up at Starrks table, Starrk was apparently yo lazy to move. Since then he had began hanging out with the seven of them a bit and now at the first day of the holiday they had ended up outside, in the freaking cold, chatting. They were all lucky that the academy gave them winter uniforms, since nobody of them had enough money to buy good winter clothes on their own.

"Why not...", Ichigo began before he got interrupted.

"Lilynette", Starrk exclaimed from the middle of no where, with a look of horror and exasperation on his face. Then he began discussing with himself, or at least with someone none of the others could hear. "No Lilynette... Why?...It's to bothersome, I mean there is no point anyway...Lilynette." A sour expression came over his face before he muttered something directed at Ichigo. "I guess it wouldn't to hurt to graduate in a year and a half, it will be my fifth year anyway." Ichigo had no idea of what he was supposed to respond to that.

"Who were you talking to", Orihime asked, even she sounded careful. Did they have a nutcase before them? She was the only one that would open her mouth since all the others tried pretend doing something else, to avoid asking the awkward question.

Chad was just silent as a always, since he almost never spoke nobody he could hide behind his quietness. Uryuu was just playing with his glasses, pretending to be busy that way. Ichigo was to busy starring, he wasn't a discreet person. Nelliel was trying to catch Ichigo'a attention, to get him to stop starring at Starrk like Starrk was some kind of alien. Ulquiorra almost did the same as Chad did, just he hid behind an expression of scorn. Nobody really wanted him to speak anyway, since he would probably just say a insult anyway. Grimmjow was playing stupid, or it could be that he didn't really get what was going on. The man could fight, but thinking and interacting with other people was a whole other story.

"Well", Starrk began scratching his hair. He looked as if he was about to explain something really complicated, he didn't look like he was insane. "To keep it all short, Lilynette is my Zanpakuto."

"Zanpakuto", Orihime exclaimed, even though Orihime was the only one who spook out loud the others was also surprised. "Do you know your Zanpakuto's name?" Starrk just nodded and it looked like he wanted to be at any other place than the one he actually was.

"Can we see it", Orihime asked with begging eyes before anyone else had time to say anything else. "Please Starrk. I have never seen a released Zanpakuto before and I don't think my friends have either." She was watching him with big puppy eyes, like she was the most innocent and pitiful girl in the world and all her sorrows would go away if Starrk just did such a simple thing as relesing his sword.

"Lilynette", Starrk called out but this time his spiritual power surged and the weapon in his hand changed. In a short blaze of blue and white spiritual power the sword had changed into two simple guns. In his hands he now held two plain, small and black guns, apparently that was his shikai.

"Why didn't you use a release command", Uryuu asked carefully, still a bit wary of the man in front of him. "Aren't you supposed to need a realize command together with the Zanpakuto's name to realize it." "Ahh", Starrk just sighed, this was not his forte.

"Stupid Starrk", a voice from the guns suddenly said. The guns began twitching in Starrks hands without Starrk actually touching them, as if they had a will of their own. "Starrk doesn't like showing his shikai, since it seems to be really special. Since it's special he is always asked a lot of questions and as you may have noticed he doesn't like to do anything that requires the least bit of effort." Starrk tried to get out complaints, but the gun didn't even allow him to speak at all.

"Is that your Zanpakuto talking", Orihime managed to get in. Her other friends were just starring at the pair of talking guns. Sure they knew the shinigami academy was strange, but this day had just been stranger than anything else they had experienced. Orihime was not as stunned as the others though, she seemed to be able to accept anything no matter how strange it was. Starrk just nodded as a response to Orihimes question, he looked exhausted.

"Well", the guns, or Lilynette, continued, as if she had never been stopped. "You guys better making this lazy bum graduate with you. Otherwise he is going to graduate at about the middle of his class and stay as a mediocre shinigami for the rest of his damned life, even though he has potential. I refuse to let that happen. Fucking refuse. Do you hear me?" Of course she didn't give them a chance to answer. "But you better remember something else. Even though he might have forgotten, I have not. If you ever do something strange to him, not that I think you would mind me but you never now, I will make sure all of you die. Are you guys listening to..." That's when Starrk reverted his Zanpakuto back to its original state and stopped Lilynettes shouting.

"Sorry, I guess", Starrk said scratching himself in the hair again, that seemed to be a habit of his the same way as pushing up his glasses was a habit for Uryuu. "Lilynette usually talks to much, to loud and about annoying things. I didn't get much about what she was chatting about anyway so you people shouldn't listen to much to it. But, well,I guess that's a Zanpakuto for ya. Now you have seen a Shikai release." He offered up a weak smile.

"That's amazing", Orihime said while the other was just starring at Starrk. "So you'll graduate with us?" Orihime was not exactly a subtle person.

"I guess I will", Starrk said with a small chuckle. "I have to listen to Lilynette sometimes or she'd kill me."

"Have you always been able to talk to your Zanpakuto", Orihime asked in a curious tone, continuing to pressure him with her questions. "You talk about ... Lilynette as if you have always known her." This was the question the others had also been wondering about.

"Yeah, always", Starrk said quietly creating an awkward silence. It really seemed as if Starrk did not want to talk more about this subject, even Grimmjow got the hint. Just to break the silence Uryuu asked what he already asked before but never got an answer to. "Why didn't you need to use a release command."

"Well to be honest I don't understand that to much myself", Starrk answered once again sounding just tired and bored, but that seemed to be how he always sounded like. "The special Shikai trainer, you have him as a teacher on either the morning or afternoon on Saturdays instead of meditation when you achieve Shikai, told me something like this: It seems as if Lilynette permanently want's to be released so she doesn't go back into her sealed form like most Zanpakutos. Instead I have to force her to go back. Well it's not really that I understand it, it's just the way it is."

"Well I just can't wait until I achieve Shikai", Ichigo exclaimed. "I wonder how my sword looks like." It sounded as if Ichigo was about to burst with excitement and Nelliel could not help but smile at the thought.

"I don't think you are the only one", Chad spoke for once in his deep voice, flashing a small smile at Ichigo. In truth non of them could wait until they achieved shikai themselves. They wanted to see the true form of their zanpakuto, it's true abilities. They wanted to hold their very own swords in their hands and feel the proof of their strength.

"By the way", Nelliel said breaking the dreamy silence. "I heard that there was supposed to be a festival at next monday, the 30 december, to celebrate the new year. It's held in the evening and continues on until it's tuesday. It supposed to be really fun and we have nothing else to do. So what do you say?"

"Of course", Orihime squealed. "I have never been to a festival before. Thank you Nell!" Then she threw a embraced Nelliel in a giant huge, clearly showing how exciting she thought it was.

Ichigo didn't know what to say himself. He had never been to a festival before and he didn't know what to expect from it. It might be fun, but from what he had heard before it didn't sound to appealing. To do stuff at the festival he would probably need money and he was as good as broke, meaning he would either have to borrow money from his friends or not do anything and neither of the alternatives sounded very fun. At the same time there was supposed to be lot of people at a festival like this and truth be told, he didn't like being surrounded by people. It was a feeling he had been given since living in the 80th district, where lots of unknown people meant a big chance at being attacked, plus it was hard to keep track of both people and your surroundings when it was crowded.

Truth to be told he didn't think that the festival sounded so appealing and if not for Orihime's excitement and Nelliel's clear wish to go he would in all likelihood say no. "All right", he said instead, trying to not sound resigned. When Nelliel's grateful eyes meet his he thought that maybe it wouldn't be so bad after all.

* * *

All around him there was darkness. He could hear the sound of water and he could feel that he was standing in sand. Soon light from the moon would appear, but for moment it was behind heavy clouds.

Chad had been here before. It wasn't the first time his dreams carried him here. It didn't happen regularly, he could never know if he would come here or not when he went to sleep, but whenever something interesting or special happened during the day he seemed to find himself here when he slept.

It hadn't took many visits for him to figure out what this place was. Just because he was silent it didn't mean he was stupid in any sort of way. This was clearly his inner world, and the two monster look a like spirits where clearly his zanpakuto.

Chad enjoyed the feeling of sand against his feet as he slowly walked his way down the beach. He didn't know way, but because of some reason he seemed to find peace here. It was especially peaceful when it was as it was now, quiet, dark and nobody talking to him. It wasn't as if he had anything against talking to his zanpakuto, he had long since gotten over it's hideous appearance, but he liked the peace and quiet of this place.

Soon he became able to see the silhouette of this place, as the moon slowly left the cloud to shine it's light on this world. As long as the eye could see there was only sand and sea, and in the moonlight it shone beautiful. Even though the landscape was empty and repetitive it was very beautiful to Chad.

Slowly the two monsters that Chad had long since concluded was his zanpakuto appeared. He knew that it was rare, but not unheard of, for a zanpakuto to come as a pair or two spirits whatever you wished to call it. Because of this he couldn't wait to see how his zanpakuto would look in it's shikai form, would it be in a pair as it spirits made one think.

"Chad", one of the monsters said as the two of them came in clear sight. "You seem to have questions for us." The monster that was talking was black with markings on it. The markings were a color somewhere between red and pink. It looked as if the monster wore an armor, but it was clearly a part of it's body. On it's right arm it had something that looked a lot like a shield, but as it was a part of it's body you can't really classify it as a shield. On it's left arm something extended above the shoulder, the extenision ended a bit above the head of the moster. The markings were over the entire body, in intricate pattern.

The other monster was white with red markings on it. On it's left shoulder it had something that looked like a sharp horn sticking up and on the face there actually were two horns. The white one was more lean and slender than the black one. The black one looked big and robust, as if it could take an attack straight on without blinking an eye. Instead the white one looked as if it were ready to leap and move to attack, but it still looked as if it had just as much brute strength as the black one. The only difference were really that it was more lean and adaptable to fast movement instead of sturdy and ready to take whatever was thrown at it.

He could still remember the first time he saw them, how their appearances had scared him out of his skin. At first he had asked himself if they really could be his zanpakuto, they looked more like hollows than anything else. But they had been taught about both hollows and zanpakuto spirits in school and there was nothing that said anything about people having hollows in them, so he had quickly come to the conclusion that they were his zanpakuto after all. Later on he had realized that their personality weren't even half as terrible as their appearance.

"I have", he answered the red once question. Both him and the spirits uttered few words, making it very hard to hold a proper conversation.

"Say them then", the white one spit, sounding annoyed. The white one was clearly the more aggressive of the two, having both a hot temper and bad patience.

"How do I materialize you", Chad asked straight to the point, using as little words as possible. He knew his zanpakutos wouldn't be insulted by his straight forward language, since they were just as straight to the point when talking.

"You should be able to do that already", the black one said softly. "Both we and you are ready."

"How you have to find yourself", the white one said, speaking far from as softly as the black one had. "See this as another chance to prove your worth for us, which you will need to do anyway." His words were harsh, making Chad feel almost ashamed for asking.

"Since you are already here I will answer another question of yours", the black one, continued where the white one had left of. "I know that you also want to know how to learn our names, and the only way to do that is to prove yourself to us. You need to prove yourself to both of us, which you do in different ways, but it has to come from you. If we told you how there would be no point."

Chad let the words sink in, nodding to show that he had understood. He couldn't help but feeling a tiny bit annoyed by the sparse information they would give him, but at the same time he could understand. If he were to lend his power to someone else to us he would want to know that that person was worthy using it.

A comfortable quiet soon came over them, Chad being deep in thoughts about the information they had given him. He was supposed to be able to materialize the zanpakuto already, making him decided for himself that he had to spend more time meditating. One other thing he should do was ask Ichigo how he had done when he had materialized his zanpakuto, that might give Chad an idea of how to do it himself. Ichigo wouldn't think less of him for doing that, instead he would be glad to help. At the same time it he decided that if he would ask he would ask when there was only him and Ichigo, so that as few people as possible would know. It was a bit embarrassing after all.

When he felt sufficiently calmed down and relaxed he told his zanpakutos that he really needed to get some really sleep now. At the same time he left his inner world to fall down into a world of dreams.

* * *

"Whahaha." Immediately when Karin stepped into her house she could hear the penetrating sound of crying. After a especially busy day in the ninth division the annoying sound made her want to go out of the house and run away. She couldn't deal with this, not today, but as with things you don't like doing you seldom have a choice.

"Hi", she muttered as she passed the room were her dad usually sat just to realize that it was empty, her dad obviously hadn't come home yet. It made her a bit angry at the bastard, if he had been home he would have dealt with the crying instead of her. He should be the one to deal with it, since in her opinion it was partly his fault anyway. She knew that was just a vain hope belonging to a coward.

She softly knocked at her twins room, the place the crying was coming from. The loud crying immediately went down to quiet sobs, as if Yuzu were trying to hide the fact that she had even cried. As Karin got no answer to her knock she walked into the room anyway. The sight that met her was miserable, but pretty common. She always dealt with this, she didn't even really see it as a bother since she loved her twin. Today though, today she just couldn't.

Karin sat down at Yuzu'z bed, softly patting her back. Yuzu was laying down in the bed hugging her pillow tightly to hid her face. "What's wrong Yuzu", Karin asked softly even though she was 99.9% sure already.

"Nothing is wrong", Yuzu mumbled her sobbing stopping entirely. Karin wanted to sigh. She could have left there, could have said alright and just gone to her own room to sleep. It would have been possible, but she knew that she could never do that to her own sister. Never. Karin had someone to lean on, someone that wasn't part of the Kurosaki family, but Yuzu only had her and her dad if he could count.

The one thing that made it so impossible was the fact that Yuzu was lying and Karin knew that. Since the day they realized the truth their father had tried to hide about their brothers death, the day they moved to Soul Society, Yuzu had been crying often. At the beginning she had cried open like she always did before, but when their lives here had began for real she had tried to hide it. She always cried when she thought no one was home, when no one would hear. At that point she had become a bit like Karin, but since she couldn't stop crying like Karin did so she tried to hide it instead.

"Don't lie Yuzu", Karin said just as softly but with an edge to it. "You know it won't work with me." Karin knew why Yuzu was lying, but it still hurt a bit to know that the person closest to her tried to lie to her even if it was because Yuzu wanted to protect Karin. Not that Karin really had any right to say anything in that matter.

"Ichigo", Yuzu mumbled and her crying began anew. It was as if Karin's words had been all that was needed to push Yuzu over the edge again. Instead of clinging to her pillow Yuzu clung to Karin this time crying her eyes out. Looking at her crying twin made it harder to stop herself from crying as well, especially since she knew why Yuzu was crying.

When Yuzu finally managed to calm down Karin opened her mouth. "What's wrong this time", she softly her voice cracking. Just as much as Yuzu held Karin, Karin held Yuzu. The two of them clung to each other trying to suppress the pain of their loss.

"Everything", Yuzu mumbled through small hiccups. "The rumors ... the fact that if Ichigo was here we would soon be celebrating a happy christmas ... do you remember how we used to celebrate christmas Karin?" Karin just nodded trying to suppress the tiny part of pain that woke up to Yuzu's words. "It is just ... we'll never see him again will we Karin?" When Yuzu said that she looked Karin right in the eyes and Karin couldn't help but showing some of the guilt she was feeling on her face.

"Karin", Yuzu said seriously, her voice suddenly stead. "What is it that you are not telling me? Don't try to back away I know that it's there." This was the reason she didn't want to deal with this today. Karin was dead tired and she just couldn't keep her emotions down like she always did, they kept surfacing damn it.

"Nothing Yuzu", Karin said way more calmly than she felt. "How could I keep anything from my twin." Karin knew it was pointless, her twin understood her way to well. She had to try anyway, because she just couldn't tell Yuzu this.

"Karin", Yuzu said and for once her voice had an edge to it. Yuzu looked at Karin with stern and motherly eyes, like she was a mother that knew her child had done something bad and was just waiting for the child to confess. It was to much for Karin, this time it was to much for Karin. Deep down Karin did not even know if had done the right thing with keeping the truth from her sister.

"Ichigo", Karin began fighting to get the words out. "The rumors are true." Looking at Yuzu's face that slowly lit with hope she couldn't say anything more. Her tongue froze in her mouth and she couldn't get another word out.

"Than why don't we go and meet him", Yuzu exclaimed, clearly not thinking rationally. If Yuzu had been thinking rationally she would have realized that there most be a reason as to why Karin had kept something like that from her.

"We can't", Karin exclaimed and the words just bubbled out from her. "He doesn't remember us at all." That froze Yuzu in her place together with her face of happiness. "He is no longer Kurosaki Ichigo our brother. He is just Ichigo and he has a knew life. I've met him." At the last sentence her voice fell to quiet whisper. Her chest hurt. It hurt just like it had hurt the day she met her brother for the first time in ten years. It hurt, but she couldn't cry, not know.

"He looked happy Yuzu", Karin continued slowly when Yuzu didn't say anything. "He looked truly happy, which is something he didn't do often ever since he became a shingami. I can't, won't, drag him down into the life he left behind. If he ever remembers on his own I'll be there for him, but I won't force him." God how she hoped he would remember on her own, and god how she was ashamed over it. Just imagining having to pretend not knowing him when he graduated and entered the 13 protective squads hurt. She pressed the pain deep down, into a place where she didn't feel it, into a place were it couldn't touch her. It lay there just waiting to be able to surface and bit her in the back. Maybe it was not a good way to deal with your emotions, but it was the only way she knew how to do it.

"Karin", Yuzu mumbled and hugged her tighter. Yuzu's voice was a blend of so many emotions that Karin couldn't make out all, but one was clearly there. Understanding. Yuzu understood just the way Karin felt for real. She didn't pretended to understand as so many people tried to do when they wanted to comfort someone, she just understood just the same way Karin understood Yuzu. The two of them sat like there, clinging to each other and comforting each other, until they were so exhausted that they fell asleep. Later when they awoke the next morning they couldn't remember who had separated them and put Karin in her own bed but they could both guess.

* * *

**Well that was the new chapter and I hope you guys liked it even though it was both late and short. I just have to say a important thing about this chapter and that's about Chad's Zanpakuto. I haven't entierly decided it's abilities and if they change a lot from how I think they are going to be I might be forced to change the apperance of the Zanpakuto a bit. **

**Otherwise there was nothing really important to say about this chapter. I can just say that I think I'm going to turn out a few chapters a bit more regularly now, at least for a while. They might not come out once a week, but they should come out a bit more often:)**

**Please leave a review and tell me what you thought about this short but hopefully still good chapter^^**


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